Ian Hawkey provides his in-depth look at the Uefa Champions League groups E-H.
Poll: Who will win the 2015/16 Uefa Champions League title?
Uefa Champions League group guide A-D: Real Madrid have form, Man United back in the big time
Five players to watch out for in this year’s Uefa Champions League
2015/16 Uefa Champions League group stage: Schedule, venues and kick-off times (UAE)
GROUP E
There is no good time, really, to meet Barcelona but some consolation for their early opponents in the Champions League might be drawn from the fact that whichever team goes through to the last 16 with them — and it will be a great surprise if the defending champions do not end up first or second in Group G — then gets to avoid them in the first knockout round. It’s a small crumb of comfort for Roma, Bayer Leverkusen or, less likely, for BATE Borisov.
A bigger one may be that, domestically, Barcelona have a taxing September and October schedule to preoccupy them in those months and that their summer reinforcements are not eligible to play until January, due to the registration ban placed on the club over the course of 2015 by Fifa, who found Barca had infringed regulations on the hiring of under-18 players. Once Arda, signed from Atletico Madrid, and Aleix Vidal, from Sevilla, are available, the champions can look forward to an injection of extra energy and bite.
Barcelona
No team since 1990 has ever retained the European Cup. But the nearest equivalent to a sustained Champions League domination has been achieved by the Catalan club, winners in 2009, 2011 and 2015. They want to break the jinx on back-to-back triumphs.
Roma
Nowhere was the Jekyll and Hyde nature of Roma under coach Rudi Garcia more pronounced than in the last Champions League. While scorching through the early months of the Serie A campaign, they won their first European home game 5-1. They lost their next 7-1. They need more consistency.
Bayer Leverkusen
There are two or three players still at Leverkusen who must have nightmares about Barcelona, and especially about Lionel Messi. He scored five goals in one match against them three years back. Lightning can’t strike twice and they will hope to be the club closest to Barca’s slipstream come December.
BATE Borisov
The Belarus club, closing in on their 10th successive league title, seek amends for a series of thumping, heavy defeats in the previous Champions League. Alex Hleb, 33, is back in their ranks, and will want to show Barcelona some of the skills they only rarely saw when he was one of theirs.
GROUP F
According to the Uefa club coefficient, the system used to rank clubs across the continent in terms of their modern European prowess, Bayern Munich are second best on the continent, Arsenal eighth, and Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb come in at 23rd and 79th, respectively. So, on paper, it should be plainish sailing for the German champions and for England’s most consistently able team at getting through the group phase of this competition.
The jousts between Bayern and Arsenal naturally draw the eye, for the shared values of the two coaches, Pep Guardiola and Arsene Wenger, their commitment to attractive football. Bayern have been Arsenal’s nemesis twice in the last three seasons at the knockout stage, so the Londoners may be cheered to get their meetings with Bavaria’s finest out of the way early.
Bayern Munich
Pep Guardiola almost owes Bayern a Champions League. They were the holders when he joined them in 2013, hired partly on the basis his track record as a coach was of winning the prize every other year. But heavy semi-final defeats in 2014 and 2015 now put him under pressure to deliver.
Arsenal
After five successive last-16 exits, might Arsenal actually make the quarters? Or, a decade after they reached the final for the only time, go even better? Brittle one day, brilliant the next, Arsenal risk becoming something they would hate to be called: Boring, because they always go out at the same stage.
Dinamo Zagreb
If Dinamo Zagreb were ever to have the funds to keep the best graduates of their academy, they would be quite a force in Europe. But they are sellers and can only enjoy the successes of such as ex-players Luka Modric and Mateo Kovacic with a distant pride. Scouts will be watching closely the class of 2105-16.
Olympiakos
It seems a while since Olympiakos shocked Manchester United in the last-16 stage of the 2013-14 competition and fell just short of eliminating them. That’s because so many players have moved on. A revamped squad needs settling in if the Greek champions are to capitalise on their strong home support.
GROUP G
Jose Mourinho can go to number of places and expect to have a red carpet rolled out for him, given his record in the game, given his many different ports of call in a distinguished career. Porto, who his Chelsea are paired with in Group G, was where he won the first of his two Champions League titles. They will forever thank him for that, but his return to the Dragao will also feel poignant. In five seasons now with Chelsea, The Special One has not so much as reached a Champions League final as Stamford Bridge employee.
That club expect a better return, because of the money they spend, and because Mourinho has won the trophy with squads — Porto’s and Inter Milan’s in 2010 — with a lower concentration of talent than he now has at his disposal. The English and Portuguese teams should go through from Group G, though they have long, awkward trips to Dynamo Kiev and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Chelsea
The series of stumbles with which Chelsea have begun their defence of the Premier League hardly augur well for the kind of long European campaign the club’s supporters have come to expect, but there’s a gentle opening fixture, at home to Maccabi, to ease anxieties.
Porto
As ever, the master wheeler-dealers of European football have said good-bye, in certain cases for typically handsome sums, to senior players who had served them well, but they should have the savvy to make it to the next phase. Iker Casillas, in goal, brings in extensive Champions League expertise.
Dynamo Kiev
The Ukrainian champions may have benefited from the political upheaval in the east of their country to leapfrog Shakhtar Donetsk in the domestic hierarchy. They are in the group phase of the Champions League for the first time since 2012, but may well have to settle for Europa League after Christmas.
Maccabi Tel Aviv
A Cruyff is back in the European Cup. This one is Jordi, former player with Barcelona and Manchester United, son of Johan, and now Maccabi’s director of football, with a feather in his cap for having guided them to the group phase. He’ll hope for the odd eye-catching performance and some points.
GROUP H
In some ways the most intriguing of all the first phase pools, and that’s partly because it lacks a recognised heavyweight, or extravagant spender. Or, rather, it’s most upwardly mobile member, Zenit Saint Petersburg, are no longer quite the extravagant payers and recruiters that they used to be.
Zenit’s uncertainties, as they deal with new restrictions in Russia on the number of foreign players, and plan for a future without coach Andre Vilas-Boas, who will leave at the end of the Russian season, will be welcomed by Olympique Lyonnais and Valencia. Those two clubs are happy to be back in the Champions League after a gap, and hope to provide an example to the rest of how careful management and good development structures can take a club a long way.
Zenit
Where there is Hulk’s explosive left foot, Axel Witsel’s snap and crackle in midfield and the authority at the back of Ezequiel Garay, there should be every hope that the disappointment of last year’s group phase exit can be reversed. But coach Andre Vilas-Boas has not had a happy time of late.
Valencia
Finalists in the Champions League in 2000 and 2001, Valencia are happy to be back after a three year gap during which they carefully went about addressing some of the problems — a huge debt included — that had seen them in greatly reduced circumstances. A potential dark horse for a place in the semis.
Lyon
Five years ago, Lyon reached a semi-final in the Champions League. Since then, their status as France’s most respected 21st century club has been swatted aside by the financial might of Qatar-funded Paris Saint-Germain. Injury to striker Nabel Fekir is a setback, but they have other young talents.
Ghent
Belgian champions for the first time in their history, there is excitement at this step into the big time, but also some trepidation. This is not a squad of household names and it is very light on experience at the highest level of the club game. It could be chastening.
FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @NatSportUAE
