Group A of UEFA Champions League 2008-09 Preview

The much-awaited draw for Champions League 2008-09 group stage has been completed and all of the eight groups have been finalized today (28 August 2009) at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. Football extravaganza of Europe’s 32 clubs will kick off on 16 September and the group stage matches will be finished by 10 December 2008. Here, in this post I am going to write about Group A of UEFA Champions League 2008-2009:

Clubs Drawn in Group A:

Club Name	Country Name	Performance in the last domestic season
Chelsea	England	Second/ Runner up
AS Roma	Italy	Second/ Runner up
FC Bordeaux	France	Second/ Runner up
CFR Cluj	Romania	Champion

Last year’s Champions league runner up Chelsea seems to be the most favorite to go into the next round from Group A. They will face Italian club AS Roma, France’s FC Bordeaux and Romanian league champion CFR Cluj in group stage. So, apparently Roma is favorite for the second spot in the group. Even they had a successful last season at home with finishing second to Champion Inter Milan.

French club Bordeaux had a tremendous domestic season last year with occupying the second place with four points behind the champion Olympique Lyonnais. CFR Cluj seems to be underdog in Group A, at least on pen and paper, but remember that they are the defending champion in Romanian league their recent form is good too. So, CFR Cluj might pose some trough challenges for the favorites like Chelsea and Roma.

I think, Chelsea should not have any problem to progress, while Roma and Bordeaux will be the main contenders for the second place in Group A, but I would ask you not to entirely write CFR Cluj off before at least a few matches being taken place because you are not sure yet whether CFR Cluj has the ability to appear as a dark horse in Group A.