Champions League Thread 2015/2016

[TBM]

The 32 teams in the draw will be put into eight groups of four.

In a change to previous seasons, pot one will be made up of holders Barcelona and league winners of the top seven European leagues - Spain, England, Germany, Italy, Portugal, France and Russia - rather than being based on club co-efficients.

As Spanish side Barcelona won last season's competition, Dutch champions PSV go into the top pot as Netherlands are the eighth-ranked association.

A team from each of the four pots will be drawn into the eight groups, with no more than one team from any one country in each group.

The pots

One: Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Benfica, Chelsea , Juventus, Paris St. Germain, Zenit, PSV Eindhoven

Two: Arsenal , Atletico Madrid, Bayer Leverkusen, Manchester City , Manchester United , Real Madrid, Porto, Valencia

Three: CSKA Moscow, Dynamo Kiev, Lyon, Olympiakos, Galatasaray, Roma, Shakhtar Donetsk, Sevilla

Four: Astana, BATE Borisov, Borussia Monchengladbach, Wolfsburg, Dinamo Zagreb, Maccabi Tel-Aviv, Gent, Malmo

[Sanguine]

A welcome change to pot A, makes good sense.

Rules against teams from the same league mean that there are only 5 sides who can be drawn with Barcelona; what price it is City again?

[No Fixed Abode]

We will most definitely get one of the Madrid teams.

[TBM]

We will most definitely get one of the Madrid teams.

That or Porto

[No Fixed Abode]

We will most definitely get one of the Madrid teams.

That or Porto

Or Valencia or Bayer Levekusen

[Winston Smith]

T&P with Robert Beric at this, a most relegation dogfight of times

[Sanguine]

Terrific Van Gaal-Giggs gif here.

https://v.cdn.vine.co/r/videos/953083DC ... JAfsOOtQMF

[TBM]

Arsenal drawn in Bayerns group - ouch

Utd get PSV

Chelsea get Porto - as i said

Man City into the group with Juventus

[Ascotexgunner]

Blimey will Arsenal get through that? They've beaten Munich a few times but their away record is ropey to say the least. Don't think they've wont their last 4 visits to Olympiakos and who would want to goto Zagreb. Very tough call this group. We know who the winners are though.

[stealthpapes]

... because its a far better competition for the casual fan ...



Big fan of qäbälä

[Zammo]

All starts tonight then.....on BT Sport. Haven't got it, so that's me out.

Sky's coverage was the nuts so British Telecom's coverage has a lot to live up too. Now wish i'd not tweeted any anti Andy Townsend stuff. Might have stayed on ITV otherwise. Be interesting to see BT's viewership over the next two nights.

[TBM]

All starts tonight then.....on BT Sport. Haven't got it, so that's me out.

Sky's coverage was the nuts so British Telecom's coverage has a lot to live up too. Now wish i'd not tweeted any anti Andy Townsend stuff. Might have stayed on ITV otherwise. Be interesting to see BT's viewership over the next two nights.

The live stats on BT Sport are cracking

Can see everything that pro-zone offers as the game goes on

[Ouroboros]

BT's website streaming is an utter disgrace. Completely unwatchable, whereas Sky's is almost flawless.

[TBM]

BT's website streaming is an utter disgrace. Completely unwatchable, whereas Sky's is almost flawless.

I was watching using the ipad app and it was superb

It pops up when there was a goal in any game - tap the notification and it takes you to the game and goal. You can then select any other game, it displays the scores and you can switch into it without any load time to watch live, it gives also you a timeline of events which you can scroll back through.

In all the games too it gives an average position of every player on the pitch, shows how far they've run, how many passes they've done etc etc......its like a real life version of football manager.

[6ft Kerplunk]

If only the government had given them a bucket load of money to spend on making their network capable of carrying their streaming coverage to all of their customers.

[Stranded]

Good to see Man City giving the Italians a good start in catching the PL in the coefficient stakes.

Would really be fun to see a PL with only 3 CL places to go around.

[Ginger Ninjas]

Florenzi's goal against Barca

[Sanguine]

Florenzi's goal against Barca

Looks like something off of a Football Manager tactics screen.

Looking for a gif of his goal I found another spectacular one, seems he has a penchant for it.

[Handsome Man]

Good to see Man City giving the Italians a good start in catching the PL in the coefficient stakes.

Would really be fun to see a PL with only 3 CL places to go around.

I'm not sure it matters too much.

Man Utd's turnover only dropped 8% when they missed out on Europe. With the new premiership deal, there'll be even less of a fall, and some of that might easily be made up by a few trips to Asia and not having to endure grim group-stage trips to Eastern Europe.

[RG30]

I'm sure UEFA would bend the rules somehow given how much BT Sport paid for the Champions League rights