UCL: Players To Watch
Tonight’s the night when the ultimate club football competition, the UEFA Champions League, returns.
Before it all starts lets take a quick run through the eight groups and the players to watch out for from each one. I’ve also thrown in my predictions of who’ll progress to the next stage.
Feel free to comment and add your thoughts on who you think will qualify from each section.
Group A
Bayern Munich
Juventus
Bordeaux
Maccabi Haifa
One to watch: Yoann Gourcuff
The French Ligue 1 ‘Player of the Year’ helped Bordeaux to the title last year has been recognised as the new Zidane by the many as his ability and finesse lit up the French league last season.
To Progress
Bayern Munich
Juventus
————————–
Group B
Manchester United
CSKA Moscow
Besiktas
Wolfsburg
One to watch: Grafite
The Bundesliga top scorer last season helped Wolfsburg to their first ever Bundesliga title. He and Edin Dzeko formed the the most successful striker partnership duo in Bundesliga history.
To Progress
Manchester United
Wolfsburg
————————–
Gruop C
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Marseille
Zurich
One to watch: Klaas-Jan Huntelaar
The prolific striker never got a chance last season at Real Madrid so Milan scooped him up for €15 million which is much less than what the Dutch striker is worth.
To Progress
AC Milan
Real Madrid
————————–
Group D
Chelsea
Porto
Atletico Madrid
Apoel
One to watch: Sergio Aguero
21 year old Argentinian will be hoping to take his league form into the Champions League and will show Chelsea why Atletico Madrid wanted to hold on to him this past transfer window.
To Progress
Chelsea
Atletico Madrid
————————–
Group E
Liverpool
Lyon
Fiorentina
Debrecen
One to watch: Miralem Pjanic
Lyon would have struggled if they had not found Miralem Pjanic after Juninho left. He has even taken over free kicks for the French club.
To Progress
Liverpool
Fiorentina
————————–
Group F
Barcelona
Internazionale
Dynamo Kiev
Rubin Kazan
One to watch: Mario Balotelli
The speedy Inter striker is one the top future prospects for football but may have to learn to control his temper to reach his full potential.
To Progress
Barcelona
Internazionale
————————–
Group G
Sevilla
Rangers
Stuttgart
Unirea Urziceni
One to watch: Pavel Pogrebnyak
The Russian striker signed from Zenit St Petersburg to replace Mario Gomez. The tall striker along with Cacau should cause problems for many back lines.
To Progress
Sevilla
Stuttgart
————————–
Group H
Arsenal
AZ
Olympiacos
Standard
One to watch: Jack Wilshere
The Arsenal midfielder has many people claiming him to be the next big thing in football and his manager Arsene Wenger compared Wilshere’s abilities to that of Wayne Rooney.
To Progress
Arsenal
Olympiacos
Posted on September 15, 2009 | Filed Under Football
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