Dortmund with strong draw in CL, Gladbach in Europa League
Borussia Dortmund did not get the luckiest of picks in Champions League group stage draw on Thursday. The German champions will face the English, Spanish and Dutch one in group D. Munich and Schalke did not get horror draws but there are no easy tasks in Champions League.
Goetze and his team will face some serious heavy weight in Champions League group stage.
Borussia Dortmund got quite the strong draw for Champions League group stage. The German champion was put into group D facing the Spanish, English and Dutch champion. Real Madrid, Manchester City and Ajax Amsterdam will fight with Dortmund for the two places in next stage. Madrid´s Christiano Ronaldo called group D the “most competitive group” at the ceremony in Monaco.
BVB´s national rival Schalke 04 did not get an easy draw either as they encounter Arsenal London, Olympiacos Piraeus and FC Montepellier in group B. FC Bayern Munich will meet Benfica Lissabon, Spartak Moskva and Celtic Glasgow in group F.
Borussia Moenchengladbach did not manage to proceed to group stage despite winning the second match against Kyiv with 2-1 because they lost the first with 1-3. Gladbach will now play in Europa League as well as German clubs Hanover 96, VFB Stuttgart and Bayer 04 Leverkusen.
After all groups were set 53 journalists out of the 53 UEFA states were to elect Europe´s footballer of the year 2011/2012. They had to decide between Andres Iniesta, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo. The Spanish Iniesta who just lead his national team to the third big international title in a row was chosen by the jury.
The first matches of the Champions League campaign 2012/2013 will be on September 18th and 19th. Dortmund will play the first match against Ajax Amsterdam on home grounds, Schalke will face Olympiacos in Piraeus, both on Tuesday, September 18th. FC Bayern Munich will encounter Valencia CF in Germany one day later. All eight groups are lined up afterwards:
Group A FC Porto, Dynamo Kyiv, Paris Saint-Germain FC, GNK Dinamo Zagreb
Group B Arsenal London, Schalke 04, Olympiacos FC, Montepellier Herault SC
Group C AC Milan, Zenit St. Petersburg, RSC Anderlecht, Malaga CF
Group D Real Madrid, Manchester City, AFC Ajax, Borussia Dortmund
Group E Chelsea London, Shakhtar Donetsk, Juventus Turin, Nordsjaelland
Group F FC Bayern Munich, FC Valencia, LOSC Lille, FC Bate Borisov
Group G FC Barcelona, SL Benfica, Spartak Moskva, Celtic FC
Group H Manchester United, SC Braga, Galatasaray, CFR Cluj
