Group stage promises to be an unusual thrill

by Mike Martin   @thefootietweet


For those of us found this evening at Mill Lane, watching Pickering Town play Bridlington Town in the President’s Cup, the appeal was clearly not quite enough but it is difficult to treat this season’s UEFA Champions League group stage with the usual sense of ennui.

Typically, this stage of the competition will see Manchester Utd and Chelsea qualifying with two matches to spare and Arsenal flirt with elimination having capitulated in a couple of away matches but romp through 7-0 at home to Slavia Prague.  We have had to watch Rangers in the hope of genuine excitement, which is a thoroughly depressing thought.

Yet this season there is a genuine sense of peril for all the English clubs bar one.  Manchester Utd should swat aside Benfica, Basel and Otelul Galati, even though the clubs from Portugal and Switzerland contain genuine young talent.  Basel, particularly, should be a good watch, with youngsters Xherdan Shaqiri, Fabian Frei, Valentin Stocker and Granit Xhaka in a dynamic all-Swiss midfield.

But things will not be so simple for the other Premier League sides.  Even for Chelsea, who seem to have regained their machine-like competence in the Premier League, are not guaranteed graduates of a group containing Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk.  Leverkusen are in good form, having won 4-1 at Augsburg at the weekend, while Valencia are flying in La Liga, positioned as they are two points ahead of Barcelona.

Arsenal are in an odd group.  Borussia Dortmund, the champions of Germany, played some of the best football in Europe last season and, given the struggles of the North London side, should be favourites to win the group.  Yet they were beaten at home in the Bundesliga on Saturday for the first time in over a year, losing 2-1 to Hertha Berlin, who were in the second division last term.  Marseille are hopeless, having failed to win any of their first five matches in Ligue 1, while Olympiakos have not yet begun their Greek Superleague season.

Group A is the most appetising of them all.  Manchester City must hope their excellent league form continues if they are to successfully negotiate Bayern Munich, Villarreal and Napoli in what you might call a ‘proper’ group.  Napoli began their Serie A season with an impressive 3-1 win at Cesena on Saturday evening in a pulsating match, which bodes well for tonight’s contest.  Bayern are also flying, having crushed Freiburg 7-0.  Eastlands may see some truly classic European encounters in the next three months.