The Chaaaaaampions! Uefa Champions League 15/16

[LionNYC]

The group draw was announced today in Monaco. First matches begin on September 15 & 16. The final will take place on May 28 in Milan. [I could only post 30 flags, so Lyon and Gent got the short end of the stick.]

Group A
1 Paris Saint-Germain
2 Real Madrid
3 Shakhtar Donetsk
4 Malmö FF

Group B
1 PSV Eindhoven
2 Manchester United
3 CSKA Moscow
4 Wolfsburg

Group C
1 Benfica
2 Atlético Madrid
3 Galatasaray
4 Astana

Group D
1 Juventus
2 Manchester City
3 Sevilla
4 Borussia Mönchengladbach

Group E
1 Barcelona
2 Bayer Leverkusen
3 Roma
4 BATE Borisov

Group F
1 Bayern Munich
2 Arsenal
3 Olympiacos
4 Dinamo Zagreb

Group G
1 Chelsea
2 Porto
3 Dynamo Kyiv
4 Maccabi Tel Aviv

Group H
1 Zenit Saint Petersburg
2 Valencia
3 [FRA] Lyon
4 [BEL] Gent

 

[Falastur]

Fixed Gent's flag for you. (I think you may have hit the picture limit cap though). Otherwise, nice work.

 

[LionNYC]

Fixed Gent's flag for you. (I think you may have hit the picture limit cap though). Otherwise, nice work.

Germany, Belgium. Same stuff. And you should thank Wikipedia.

 

[MikeDatTiger]

Manchester City gets a tough draw, and the sky is sky blue. Figures. At least it wasn't Bayern again.

 

[Falastur]

Manchester City gets a tough draw, and the sky is sky blue. Figures. At least it wasn't Bayern again.

No doubt they're saying them for the Round of 16. Barca get promoted to quarter-final opponents, should we get that far.

 

[Z4CH3B99]

Did anyone else realize that Astana is the very first team from Kazakstan to make it to the champions league group stage?

 

[CatNYC]

I learned about Kazakhstan when it was announced. I gasped when Malmö was picked for group A. Nice how a lot of Zlatan fans got their wish for a PSG/Malmö pairing. Just read that Malmö's website crashed after the news. That's the group I'm most excited about. I'm also thrilled Spain made history by being the first country with 5 teams in the group stage due to this year's CL qualifying format changes. Dream final for me is Barca vs PSG or Atlético de Madrid with Barca winning.

 

[LionNYC]

Did anyone else realize that Astana is the very first team from Kazakstan to make it to the champions league group stage?

Borat visits the Champions League

 

[Keith Putnam]

Frankly, I'm not clear on how either Israel or Khazakhstan can be part of UEFA, geographically speaking.

...and no, I won't just go look up the history! Hmph!

 

[Z4CH3B99]

Frankly, I'm not clear on how either Israel or Khazakhstan can be part of UEFA, geographically speaking.

...and no, I won't just go look up the history! Hmph!

I would like Israel to be banned from UEFA in response to the fact that they aren't even in Europe. Is any part of Khazakhstan in Europe?

 

[mgarbowski]

I would like Israel to be banned from UEFA in response to the fact that they aren't even in Europe. Is any part of Khazakhstan in Europe?

I really don't want to delve into the right/wrong politics of this but basically most Arab countries refuse to play against Israel. FIFA could force the issue and make every Arabic country forfeit every game it plays against Israel or Israeli teams, or cave, but instead they chose to sidestep the issue and put Israel in Europe where they clearly don't belong. As far as I know Israel would rather be in its proper geographic federation. Blame the Arabic countries, blame Israel, blame FIFA. I have very clear well-considered views on the Middle East which I have no intention of sharing in this forum. This is the last I intend to say on the subject. But that's the reason Israel is in UEFA.

 

[andyrangersfc]

I would like Israel to be banned from UEFA in response to the fact that they aren't even in Europe. Is any part of Khazakhstan in Europe?

The main reason Israel is part of UEFA is because the surrounding arabic countries will refuse to recognise them as a nation and won't play them, and if they did, there could be serious crowd trouble. They aint exactly well into Asia anyway, so its not completely illogical.

Kazakhstan and even the likes of Azerbaijan and Armenia are more dubious

 

[Fantazma]

The main reason Israel is part of UEFA is because the surrounding arabic countries will refuse to recognise them as a nation and won't play them, and if they did, there could be serious crowd trouble. They aint exactly well into Asia anyway, so its not completely illogical.

Kazakhstan and even the likes of Azerbaijan and Armenia are more dubious

that travel benfica gotta do, 11 hours on plane??? ,

 

[Davo15]

As everyone said Israel are in Europe because most of the Arab countries refuse to play them. I think it's somewhat of a mixed bag for them. They would likely qualify for more World Cup's coming out of Asia and their clubs might be able to do decent in Asian champions league. At the same time it can be argued playing against stronger opposition has made them a bit stronger. Also should be noted that Australia are in Asia so don't expect Fifa to be geographically correct to the real world!

 

[Falastur]

Let's not forget that for a few years, Israel competed in the Oceania confederation, purely to get away from the other Middle Eastern countries...

 

[Keith Putnam]

But that's the reason Israel is in UEFA.

Thanks! I honestly didn't have any idea why.

 

[Gene]

Right now:

• Real Madrid vs Shakhtar over on MSG+
• Manchester United vs PSV over on FOX 1
• Manchester City vs Juventus ver on FOX 2
• PSG vs Malmo over on ESPN2

WOW! Luke Shaw (Man Utd) looks to be severely injured. Hope he's going to be ok. They're taking a very long time to get him on the stretcher and off the field.

 

[Gene]

PSG up 1-0 from a 4' goal by Di Maria.

 

[BxLio91]

Too many good matchups at the same damn time. Switching back between Man City/Juve and PSG/Malmö on TV and watching Real/Shakhtar on the iPad.

 

[Gene]

I hear ya. I'm mainly watching Zlatan, but I'm surfing around too.