UEFA Champions League Draw: Group D The ‘Group Of Death’

After a long and relatively pointless piece of spectacle in Monaco, the UEFA Champions League groups are set. Some look pretty straightforward... and some -- we’re looking at you, Group D -- don’t. At all. You’ve seen what the analysts think of the various groups, but now it’s time to get feedback from the fans themselves. We’ve surveyed the SB Nation blogs involved in the tournament to find out just what they think of their group stage fates. Read on!

Opponents: Schalke 04, Olympiacos, Montpellier.

The Portuguese club surprisingly topped their group last year, helping to knock perennial contender Manchester United to the Europa League. After a Round of 16 victory over Zenit St. Petersburg, they fell to eventual champions Chelsea. Advancing is no doubt expected, but finishing above Barca would a tremendous accomplishment for Jorge Jesus and his team if they can pull it off.

Spartak are back in the Champions League after missing out in 2011-12. Getting out of this group would be a big deal and whenever you get to play three matches in Moscow, that’s an advantage. Whether or not they have enough firepower to get results away from home will have to be seen.

Bayern Munich are the kings of Group F. There’s really not a whole lot else going on here.

Last year’s runners up have got even better, with Mario Mandzukic and Athletic Bilbao’s Javi Martinez coming into the side. There’s absolutely no way that this team isn’t favourites to go through -- they might be the bet side in Europe outside of Real Madrid and Barcelona.

If Shakhtar hold onto Willian and play their best football, there’s no reason to believe that they can’t challenge Chelsea and Juventus. Many of the players on their team were part of the UEFA Cup winning side, as well as the team that beat Roma in the knockout stages of Champions League. Willian, Alex Texeira, Dentinho and Henrikh Mkhitaryan aren’t youngsters anymore. This is a strong and experienced side, but they will need to improve on last season’s performances. Shakhtar was extremely disappointing in a very winnable group in 2011.

The draw didn’t fall too kindly to Nordsjaelland. The good news for them is that they haven’t drawn any of the teams that possess the talent and style of football to crush them 6-0. They’re going to struggle to get any points, but they’re more likely to be on the wrong end of 2-0 losses that are not as close as the score indicates than they are to get outright whooped.

People love a “Group of Death” and this year’s UEFA Champions League Group D is the “Group of Death”. Four champions from four major European leagues will battle it out for two spots in the Round of 16. This group is going to be a lot of fun for the neutrals and may lead to supporters of the involved clubs chewing on a lot of antacids.

The four-time European champions are not a bad team, but when you’re faced with a group that includes the other three heavyweights, your chances are slim.

The world’s longest draw ceremony has drawn to a close, and now it’s time to bring you previews of each of the Champions League groups. Without any further ado, here’s Group C:

Ok, they might not be anyone’s favorites but my own, but Zenit are tough and this is...not the toughest group. Indisputably the best in Russia, Zenit made it to the knockout stages of the tournament last season. Of course, their group included APOEL (who took top) Braga, and Shakhtar Donetsk, but that’s nothing really weaker than what they’ve been handed this time around. They were then eliminated by Benfica, 4-3 on aggregate. The squad has remained strong and steady into this season -- why shouldn’t they emerge on top?

Group A of the UEFA Champions League wasn’t particularly impressive; Group B isn’t either. Arsenal are one of the weakest Pot One teams, but instead of getting paired up with a strong set of lower seeds, they’ve mostly wound up with a whole lot of ‘meh’. Schalke, Olympiacos and Montpellier aren’t bad sides -- there aren’t really poor teams in this competition -- but none of them have the firepower to unseat the Gunners at the top of the group.

Montpellier were surprise Ligue 1 champions last season, but the quality of their squad doesn’t suggest a repeat. Having lost Giroud to Arsenal (storyline!), their squad no longer has the sort of cutting edge that they’d like. It’s difficult to see them anything but fourth. They will console themselves with the ‘photos’ section of John Utaka’s website.

Group A was almost a crime against humanity before Paris Saint-Germain came to the rescue. Many fans dreamed of a group of death involving PSG before the UEFA Champions League draw, but the draw was extremely kind to the Ligue 1 runners-up. They will be heavy favorites to win their group and progress to the knockout stages of the competition. The race for second place behind them should be interesting, while Dinamo Zagreb probably won’t put up much of a fight.

Carlo Ancelotti’s boys are off to a rough start with three draws from three matches in Ligue 1, but it’s hard to believe that they won’t figure out how to win matches shortly. Ancelotti is too good of a coach and the squad has too much talent for them to not turn things around shortly.

It’s UEFA Champions League draw time. Imagine the song. Sing it out loud (I’m pretty sure it’s just ‘the Champions’ repeated over and over again). Also imagine some Heineken bottles. Singing the song. If anyone asks what you’re doing, tell them you had a seizure.

The pots are all seeded and now we’re just waiting for teams to be drawn. Remember that teams in the same pot cannot be drawn together, and nor can teams in the same league (so no Manchester derbies or Clasicos just yet). The group stages are by no means a formality -- several big names were eliminated before February last year -- and there are some seriously worrying-looking names in the lower pots. Here’s the complete list:

The road to Wembley Stadium for the 2013 UEFA Champions League final begins with today’s group stage draw, at least for some teams. 10 of the teams have already played in the competition, coming through the qualification and/or playoff rounds to make the group stage, but for the 22 others, the draw is their first introduction to this season’s competition.

The draw, like all draws, is sure to be overly dramatic and way too long. There will be a bunch of videos, speeches, reminiscing about past tournaments and fawning about the history of Wembley. By the time that they actually get around to picking balls from a glass bowl, 84% of viewers* will already be bored.

With the completion of the 10 two-legged playoff round ties this week, the field of 32 for the 2012-13 UEFA Champions League group stage is set. Now that the teams for the group stage have been sorted out, it is time to put them into groups.

Cue an oversized stage in Monaco, odd performances that nobody wants to see and close ups of old men jotting down the groups as if computers and the internet don’t exist because if they don’t write the groups immediately then they will never be able to get them. It’s time for the Champions League draw!