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UCL Group Stage: Tough Draw for Spanish Teams
- Football Espana, Thursday, August 29, 2013 3:25 PM
Spain’s four representatives in this season’s UEFA Champions League have each been handed a tough group stage draw. For the third season running, Barcelona will face AC Milan in group play, along with Ajax and Celtic, while Real Madrid faces Italian champion Juventus in Group B, along with Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen.
In Group A, Real Sociedad, which qualified for the competition for the second time in its history after beating Lyon 4-0 on aggregate in the UCL playoff, will face Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester United. Atletico Madrid faces perhaps the kindest group stage draw of any Spanish team, with FC Porto, Zenit St Petersburg and Austria Vienna in Group G.
English giant Manchester City will play in Group D alongside European champion Bayern Munich, Russian champion CSKA Moscow and Czech giant Viktoria Plzen. Arsenal, meanwhile, drew the group of death, with Marseille, Borussia Dortmund and Napoli in Group F. Chelsea faces perhaps the kindest draw of them all in Group E alongside Schalke, Basel and Steaua Bucharest.
