Champions League Draw | Group A: FC Harry Kane, United, Copenhagen, Galatasaray

When you are in the second seeding layer, you must expect to meet strong teams. Therefore, the draw is probably as expected: Munich was one of the most difficult teams from Pool 1. FC Copenhagen was one of the easier teams from Pool 3. Galatasaray was one of the most difficult from pool 4. It will be fun if there are 3 Højlund brothers on the field when we meet FC Copenhagen. However, I think it is most realistic with a maximum of 2, as one of the twin brothers is out of the squad most matches.

I was in Parken the last time we played Copenhagen in the CL. Not a great day for us, as we lost 1-0.
 
Plant0x84 said:
I don’t like this draw. Bayern and Gala will be tough games, and there is every chance we underestimate Copenhagen.

Sods Law we would draw Munich after losing out on Kane to them.
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Which teams were you expecting we'd come up against in the CL? Rangers and Molde?
 
Could be a worse draw! We will go through
 
Rauður Djöfull said:
Am thinking this is the way as well, I don't care where I sit if I can just see it at the stadium (though obviously it would be ideal not to be in the hardcore FCK zone)
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You should be aware that there are no “neutral” seats at Parken (FCK’s stadium) for these games, so make sure to dress casually, should you opt for non-away tickets. And steer clear of Section B and C, which is where the season ticket holders are located.

Further, to have the chance of purchasing a ticket for the game, you will have to first sign up for the FCK+ membership / subscription, which cost 60 DKK / month or so, which I assume you can cancel after getting the ticket, and then be quick when sales for this group opens up. Previously they also only sold tickets as bundles for all three home games, so you might also have to purchase tickets for the other games. But I can only imagine that it’s going to be some games in Copenhagen with a fantastic atmosphere at the stadium!

And what a draw! Even though it’s not the easiest for United, it should make some great games. Though, if they show up unfocused, I can easily see points dropped either in Istanbul or in Copenhagen.
 
Relatively easy group. We really should go through, maybe even first place. Bayern are not what they used to be.
 
Great draw for United. Should be easy enough. First time i’m gonna hope for a United loss when we meet my hometown club, FC Copenhagen… :p
 
Fantastic group. We have no business being in the Champions League if we can't get out of that group.
 
fezzerUTD said:
Location locked.
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Hope this is better:

the goal from yesterday that ensured FC Copenhagen access to the Champions League. It's an extraordinarily good goal from their central defender. Not a goal you see every day. Watch from 00:33
 
Hester_manc said:
Hope this is better:

the goal from yesterday that ensured FC Copenhagen access to the Champions League. It's an extraordinarily good goal from their central defender. Not a goal you see every day. Watch from 00:33
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meh the goal was pretty poor defending by the gk. Decent strike though at least got it on goal.
 
FerociousCorgis said:
meh the goal was pretty poor defending by the gk. Decent strike though at least got it on goal.
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So not a great goal? I see it as insanely good. Great kick and well seen that the goalkeeper has taken a chance. The Goal scorer said in the interview that he had seen that their keeper often took chances, so he came out first for crosses. Therefore he was prepared to finish from that angle and 35 meters out.
 
Decent draw and expect to get out of it in second place, Bayern will be up for it. Better group than the Toons that’s for sure
 
Born2Lose said:
City with an easy group again, what a surprise.
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:lol::lol::lol:

Bored at work so I decided to look up United's Group stage opponents during the last 10 seasons of Ferguson's time at United. You will have been in Pot 1 most if not all seasons.
You drew the following opponents

Celtic X 2
Rangers X 2
Benfica X 3
Braga
Sporting CP
Villareal X 2
Valencia
Stuttgart
Wolfsburg
Lyon
Lille
Roma
Galatasaray
Fenerbache
Bursaspor
Besiktas
Cluj
Otelul
Panathinaikos
Sparta Prague
CSKA Mocsow
Basel
Aalborg
Copenhagen
Dynamo Kiev.
Hardly a selection of Europe's most feared teams.

City in comparison in the last 10 seasons have mostly been in Pot 1 but spent some time in Pot 2 while they built up their coefficient.

In seasons 13/14 to 22/23 amongst others they have faced such as
Bayern X 2
Sevilla X 2
Barcelona
Juventus
PSG
Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Roma
Porto
as well as half decent sides like Shaktar, B Moenchengladbach, Atalanta and Lyon.
I agree that in the last couple of years their draws have been soft but the years prior to that saw them consistently getting tougher draws than United were getting back in the day.
Domestic Cup draws definitely favour United recently with away games at top teams very few.
All in all I don't think you have too much to moan about.
 
I think Newcastle will be the only PL team not making out of the groups. Everyone else has an easy road to finish at least second. No excuses.
 
Gentleman Jim said:
:lol::lol::lol:

Bored at work so I decided to look up United's Group stage opponents during the last 10 seasons of Ferguson's time at United. You will have been in Pot 1 most if not all seasons.
You drew the following opponents

Celtic X 2
Rangers X 2
Benfica X 3
Braga
Sporting CP
Villareal X 2
Valencia
Stuttgart
Wolfsburg
Lyon
Lille
Roma
Galatasaray
Fenerbache
Bursaspor
Besiktas
Cluj
Otelul
Panathinaikos
Sparta Prague
CSKA Mocsow
Basel
Aalborg
Copenhagen
Dynamo Kiev.
Hardly a selection of Europe's most feared teams.

City in comparison in the last 10 seasons have mostly been in Pot 1 but spent some time in Pot 2 while they built up their coefficient.

In seasons 13/14 to 22/23 amongst others they have faced such as
Bayern X 2
Sevilla X 2
Barcelona
Juventus
PSG
Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Roma
Porto
as well as half decent sides like Shaktar, B Moenchengladbach, Atalanta and Lyon.
I agree that in the last couple of years their draws have been soft but the years prior to that saw them consistently getting tougher draws than United were getting back in the day.
Domestic Cup draws definitely favour United recently with away games at top teams very few.
All in all I don't think you have too much to moan about.
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There were far fewer strong teams in the CL back in 2003-2013, so pretty much all the big clubs were in pot 1. Besides, you've conveniently chosen to include all teams United faced during that period while omitting all the easy teams City faced, cherrypicking only the harder ones. Is that intentionally dishonest or some uncanny oversight? In fact, some of the clubs you've pointed out as easy opponents for United, City have also faced... but you've neglected to add them to that list in order to make it look like City have had a much tougher time. Makes it very hard to take your post seriously. You cannot put a club on United's list as an example of how easy we've had it and then omit it from City's list when they've also faced that same club.

In the last ten seasons, City were in pot 1 only five times, so they were automatically going to have pot 1 teams in their group half of those years. Maybe you should go back to our 1993-2003 groups for a more valid comparison between the two teams. Now that City are typically in pot 1, they're getting the same treatment as we were in 2003-13 where we were in pot 1 literally every year. It creates a wildly misleading comparison. Of course one team that has been in pot 1 every year for ten years straight will have easier groups on average than another team that has been in pot 1 only five of those ten years.
 
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I was kind of hoping for a game against Bayern at some point this season. Thought it could be a good challenge for us. Think these matches will probably come too soon for us to really make a match of it though. I expect it'll take a few weeks to iron out some issues. Cant have it all i guess.
 
Dansk said:
There were far fewer strong teams in the CL back in 2003-2013, so pretty much all the big clubs were in pot 1. Besides, you've conveniently chosen to include all teams United faced during that period while omitting all the easy teams City faced, cherrypicking only the harder ones. Is that intentionally dishonest or some uncanny oversight?
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I mean he supports a team of cheats so obviously he's gonna be a bit loose with the truth when he posts on here about them.
 
Its an ok group for us, which hopefully we should be able to progress from, likely from 2nd place though.

Wouldn't want to be in Group F, as that looks like the only group where you can't pick the most likely to progress sides easily.
 
Didnt read all of the pages, but I hope I'm not the only one who thinks Bayern in the group means we gonna take this home like in 98/99. They wont stand a chance with Tuchel, even with Kane.
 
Copenhagen, Istanbul and Munich. Cannot complain about those away ties.

We should easily get through. If you cannot beat FCK and this vintage of Galatasaray you have no business being in the Champions League.
 
I think it's the right strength of a group for United. A so called "death draw" could have resulted in less clearer outcomes of where United stand presently quality wise. It's more clear cut here that not qualifying would be underwhelming.
 
Feels like a throwback draw to the age where there were two group stages and you usually couldn't avoid big teams.

Can see us losing in Istanbul and struggling in Copenhagen but barely scraping second place behind Bayern.
 
Acrobat7 said:
As a Bayern supporter I agree. Out two clubs should go through and get at least 10 points from the games against Copenhagen and Gala.
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Some people think football is still stuck in the early 2000/10's where clubs like Galatasaray and Copenhagen could actually compete against tougher opposition in some seasons.
Nowadays the difference between the financial capacity of the Premier League and European Top Clubs compared to clubs from Denmark,Turkey and basically every other tier 2 and 3 leagues is really a huge gap. And even though the turkish league can actually pay some decent wages, they're still miles and miles behind in terms of financial and attracting talent to their country.

Only by incompetence you can fail in a group like this comparing the squad values.
 
André Dominguez said:
Some people think football is still stuck in the early 2000/10's where clubs like Galatasaray and Copenhagen could actually compete against tougher opposition in some seasons.
Nowadays the difference between the financial capacity of the Premier League and European Top Clubs compared to clubs from Denmark,Turkey and basically every other tier 2 and 3 leagues is really a huge gap. And even though the turkish league can actually pay some decent wages, they're still miles and miles behind in terms of financial and attracting talent to their country.

Only by incompetence you can fail in a group like this comparing the squad values.
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That's why a Superleague is necessary. The financial gap between top clubs and the rest is way too big now. Group stages are boring for the most part and only groups of "death" attract neutral viewers. But I'm pretty sure we'll see a Superleague anyways in some years, just with UEFA as host, so they can continue to get their share as a "non profit" organization.
 
Ragnar123 said:
That's why a Superleague is necessary. The financial gap between top clubs and the rest is way too big now. Group stages are boring for the most part and only groups of "death" attract neutral viewers. But I'm pretty sure we'll see a Superleague anyways in some years, just with UEFA as host, so they can continue to get their share as a "non profit" organization.
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If one of the ideas is to take a good % of the Superleague money to inject it in the less fortunate clubs, it would not be that bad. But the problem is that those clubs would probably stop caring about their national leagues.
This could cause either the other clubs to step up and fill the gap and eventually increase the competition, or simply making the national leagues a less attractive product and become more poor as years go by.
 
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