Keeper's UEFA Champions League Preview | The Blog of the World's Sport

With the Champions League starting up tomorrow, I thought that I'd give you a guide to look at. I'll give you at least one key player per team and their ranking according to UEFA and then I'll give you my worthless but well thought out predictions. So, I'm ready to get started.

Group A

1. Bordeaux (21st)- Yoann Gourcuff

2. CFR Cluj (29th)- Eugen Trica

3. Chelsea (2nd)- Deco, Frank Lampard

4. Roma (12th)- Francesco Totti

Group B

1. Anorthosis Famagusta (31st)- Traianos Dellas

2. Inter Milan (7th)- Zlatan Ibrahimovic

3. Panathinaikos (20th)- Giorgos Karagounis

4. Werder Bremen (14th)- Diego

Group C

1. Barcelona (4th)- Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernandez

2. FC Basel (23rd)- Marco Streller

3. Shaktar Donestk (25th)- Darijo Srna, Razvan Rat

4. Sporting Lisbon (15th)- Helder Postiga

Group D

1. Atletico Madrid (27th)- Sergio Aguero

2. Liverpool (3rd)- Steven Gerrard, Fernando Torres

3. Marseille (17th)- Hatem Ben Arfa

4. PSV Eindhoven (10th)- Ibrahim Afellay

Group E

1. Aalborg (30th)- Jeppe Curth

2. Celtic (22nd)- Artur Boruc

3. Manchester United (1st)- Cristiano Ronaldo, Edwin Van der Saar

4. Villareal (11th)- Nihat, Jozy Altidore

Group F

1. Bayern Munich (9th)- Franck Ribery

2. Fiorentina (26th)- Adrian Mutu

3. Lyon (6th)- Juninho, Fred, Karim Benzema

4. Steaua Bucuresti (19th)- Dorin Goian, Juan Toja

Group G

1. Arsenal (5th)- Cesc Fabregas

2. Dynamo Kiev (28th)- Artem Milevskyi

3. FC Porto (13th)- Lucho Gonzalez

4. Fenerbache (24th)- Dani Guiza

Group H

1. BATE Borisov (32nd)- Gennadiy Bliznyuk

2. Juventus (16th)- Alessandro Del Piero, Gianluigi Buffon

3. Real Madrid (8th)- Iker Casillas

4. Zenit St. Petersburg (18th)- Andrei Arshavin

Key

Bold= Winner

Italics= 2nd

Underline= 3rd

Nothing= 4th

Well, I hoped you liked it and got something out of it. It's been Keeper and I'm out.

Comments (6) Add A Comment

September 15, 2008 08:10 PM ET

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I Honestly agree with everyone of your predictions. Im really pissed with ESPNs selections of games to show. Im gonna try to watch what i can on ESPN 360 but it usually lags too much for me. Does anybody know why that might be?

D'A

Staten Island , NY

Total Comments (933)

Comment #2 has been removed

September 15, 2008 10:22 PM ET

sweet, ill check it out

September 16, 2008 07:33 AM ET

Nice post. News on Villareal. Apparently Jozy might not be in the CL roster for Villareal. Pellegrini left him out assuming he might be loaned. Hopefully Villareal can make an appeal. Nihat will be out til late October. So now its up to Cazorla.

Big Chaco

Los Angeles , CA

Total Comments (1571)

September 16, 2008 07:35 AM ET

http://www.uefa.com/footballeurope/club=70691/competition=1/index.html

UEFA doesn't have Jozy on the roster. I hope Villareal can appeal because Franco is not 100%. Llorente would be the only healthy forward. Villareal fans really want to see him play more. The good thing is that expectations there are not has high as they are here in the US because the Spanish recognize he's only 18

September 16, 2008 09:51 AM ET

I could see Juventus taking 2nd in Group H over Zenit St. Pete. And Liverpool taking Group D with Madrid taking 2nd. Sucks about Jozy, although it may be too soon to throw him into the fire of the Champions League.