By Alan Duffy
Arsenal have a tough challenge ahead of them in this season’s Champions League after drawing Marseille (nice enough), Borussia Dortmund (bloody awful) and Napoli (very tough) in an extremely demanding Group F. Interestingly, the Gunners, Marseille and Dortmund have now been drawn in the same group in two of the last three seasons.
Premier League champions Manchester United will be happy with their lot of Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen and Real Sociedad.
Europa League holders Chelsea will be more than satisfied with Schalke, Basel and Steaua Bucharest while Manchester City face holders Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow and Viktoria Plzen, a group they really should get out of.
Scots giants Celtic, fresh from their dramatic win against Shakhter Karagandy have probably the toughest group of them all, with Barcelona, AC Milan and Ajax, all European royalty, lying in wait for the Bhoys. Oh dear.
Here’s the draw in full…
Group A: Manchester United, Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen, Real Sociedad
Group B: Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray, Copenhagen
Group C: Benfica, Paris St-Germain, Olympiakos, Anderlecht
Group D: Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Manchester City, Viktoria Plzen
Group E: Chelsea, Schalke, Basel, Steaua Bucharest
Group F: Arsenal, Marseille, Borussia Dortmund, Napoli
Group G: Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenit St Petersburg, Austria Vienna
Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax, Celtic