The draw for the 2013/14 UEFA Champions League has been conducted with lots of mouthwatering fixtures in line for European football enthusiasts over the course of the season.
Five of the eight top ranked teams in Pot One- Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Manchester United- all welcomed new managers for this season’s competition as Austria Vienna qualified for the group stages for the first time.
The first round of group matches comes up on September 17-18, while the final group games will be played on December 10 and 11.
The final match of the tournament is slated for May 24, 2014, at the Estadio da Luz in Lisbon, Portugal.
Defending and German champions Bayern is drawn in Group D alongside Russian champions CSKA Moscow, Premier League runners up Manchester City and Viktoria Plzen, who won the Czech League last season.
Seeded top of Group F is Arsenal, alongside Olympique Marseilles, who finished second in the French League last season, Champions League and German Bundesliga runners-up Borussia Dortmund and Serie A runners up Napoli.
Group H has very much been tagged as the group of death with a huge amount of European champions pedigree as Barcelona, AC Milan, Ajax and Celtic are all lining up for heated up encounters.
Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho would give a sigh of relief on finding out his side has been drawn with Schalke (fourth in Germany last season), Swiss champions Basel and Romanian kings Steaua Bucharest in Group E.
Manchester United will fancy their chances in Group A with Ukrainian champions Shakhtar Donetsk, Bayern Leverkusen (third in Germany last season), and Real Sociedad who finished fourth in the La Liga last season.
Group B comprises of Real Madrid, Juventus, Galatasaray and Copenhagen.
Group C has Benfica, PSG, Olympiacos, and Anderlecht.
Group F has Porto, Atletico Madrid, Zenit St. Petersburg and newcomers Austria Vienna.
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