Group C Isn’t The Worst In The World

A little break for myself yesterday but now I get to sit down again and take a look at this year’s Champions League setup and I’ve got to say, I’m pretty happy with the way the group turned out. Tough on Chelsea, drawing Barcelona yet again, but as far as Liverpool go I think we’ll be in a comfortable position.

We’ve landed ourselves with PSV who I reckon will be the toughest on a footballing side; Bordeaux who we’ve never played against in competition; and Galatasary who would be our toughest opposition at least on a mental factor.

We avoided the bigger guns of the second seeds and I’m pretty sure that we’ve enough firepower to win the group outright. Not that we should be that cocky and confident in going forward but we’ve got experience against Galatasaray, we’ve got a new Dutch striker who knows the ins and outs of playing against PSV in the Dutch league and we’ve got French opposition in Bordeaux who will be the least of our worries for the Group Stage. Nice to see Vladimir Smicer making a return to Anfield all the same provided he’s injury free by the time the game comes around.

Overall I think the English sides that have gone into the competition haven’t got it too bad at all. Should be great to see Celtic and Man Utd in action, while Arsenal will be landed with a trip back east to Moscow to face CSKA. Chelsea certainly have one of the stronger groups with Barcelona and Werder Bremen thrown in alongside Levski Sofia.

Rick Parry came out during the week saying that he had already budgeted for our qualification, banking on us being in the Group Stage in order to fund what has been quite a promising summer transfer spree. Now that we’re finally here I hope that the lads can make it count. We’re positioned well to make it to the last sixteen, pick up some extra cash along the way and hopefully mount a good challenge for the trophy as well. A second win in such close succession would be quite unprecedented but not impossible by any means.

So Group C isn’t the worst group in the world to be in - we could have had worse and now that we know where we stand, hopefully we’ll be walking out through the Group Stage with our heads held high and into the next stage. I just hope that we can also keep the injuries at bay, at the rate the players seem to be picking them up we may well need some extra investment in the squad before too long.

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