2007-2008 UEFA Champions League Groups Announced

The groups for the 2007-2008 UEFA Champions League Season have been announced. The long road to the final in Moscow starts now. The UEFA Champions League is the top club soccer championship in the world and lasts from October to May, when the 2008 champion will be crowned.

The UEFA Champions League pits the top teams from across Europe in a race to call themselves the best team in Europe. It includes teams from the English Premier League, the Spanish La Liga, the German, Scottish, and Portuguese league as well as others across Europe.

Defending champions AC Milan received a very favorable draw, having to face some of the weaker teams in the tournament during the group stage. Manchester United will once again have to travel to Italy, this time to face AS Roma.

Chelsea and other premier league team Arsenal also received very favorable draws but Liverpool was not so lucky. They will have to face FC Porto and Olympique Marseille.

Real Madrid received a much more favorable draw than fello Liga team FC Barcelona. Barcelona will have to fave a top french team as well as a tough scottish team.

The favorites, Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, Liverpool, AC Milan, Arsenal, Chelsea, Inter Milan and Manchester United all look to be able to move on to the knockout stages from their group draws.

The groups are:

Group A

Liverpool
FC Porto
Olympique Marseille
Besiktas

Group B

Chelsea
Valencia
FC Schalke 04
Rosenborg

Group C

Real Madrid
Lazio
Werder Breman
Olympiakos

Group D

AC Milan
Benfica
Glasgow Celtic
Shakhtar Donetsk

Group E

FC Barcelona
Olympique Lyon
VfB Stuttgart
Glasgow Rangers

Group F

Manchester United
AS Roma
Sporting Lisbon
Dynamo Kiev

Group G

Inter Milan
PSV Eindhoven
CSKA Moscow
Fenerbahce

Group H

Arsenal
Sevilla/AEK
Slavia Prague
Steaua Bucharest

These groups were determined by the following seeding:

1 AC Milan (ITA) 133.8 pts
2 FC Barcelona (ESP) 119.4
3 FC Liverpool (ENG) 112.6
4 Inter Milan (ITA) 107.8
5 Arsenal FC (ENG) 104.6
6 Real Madrid (ESP) 104.4
7 Cheslea FC (ENG) 99.6
8 Manchester United (ENG) 99.6

Second seeds:

9 CF Valencia (ESP) 99.4
10 Olympique Lyon (FRA) 95.7
11 FC Porto (POR) 89.1
12 FC Sevilla (ESP) 87.4
13 PSV Eindhoven (HOL) 82.0
14 AS Roma (ITA) 78.8
15 Benfica Lisbon (POR) 67.1
16 Ajax Amsterdam (HOL) 66.0

Others:

18 Celtic Glasgow (SCO) 62.1
20 VfB Stuttgart (GER) 58.6
26 Glasgow Rangers (SCO) 47.1

These seedings are derived from a UEFA coefficient that takes into account all European action from the past five years. Teams that do not finish high enough in their league must go through three legs of qualifying before they are placed in groups for the group stage of the tournament.

All information was gathered from UEFA.com