By Tony Attwood
So now we know: Schalke, Montpellier, Olympiakos – not too bad at all in my view. And we can watch Man City play Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund with some interest.
Schalke reached third place in the Bundesliga. They have won their first match this season (a cup match against lower league opposition) and then drew 2-2 with Hannover 96. They have lots of club songs:
- Ein Leben lang, Blau und Weiß ein Leben lang
- Kennst du den Mythos vom Schalker Markt?! (“Do you know the Myth of the Schalke Market?!”)
- Opa Pritschikowski (“Grandpa Pritschikowski”),
- Wir sind Schalker
- Schalke ist die Macht
- Steht auf, wenn ihr Schalker seid
Montpellier won its first ever title by beating PSG by three points. A certain Oliver Giroud with 21 goals and nine assists, was the league’s top goal scorer. However they are currently 18th in the league (a relegation spot) having drawn one and lost two of their matches.
Olympiakos – we just keep getting them each year – well not each year but most years. Here’s one little bit I picked out: They play Panathinaikos in what is known as the “derby of the eternal enemies.” We have won the home ties in the last times we have met them, but lost the away ties.
Travelling is not going to be too much of a problem, which is great news. Hopefully we will be top of the group and so miss out on another group winner in the first knock out round.
- Ref Review: Arsenal v Sunderland
- Next Gen, Wembley, Champs League
- Lee Probert, a total anti-Arsenal ref
- Chapman’s brilliance with wingers
- Arsenal v Marseille
- Who referees the referees?
- Calling football chaotic gives chaos a bad name
- Bill Parker, an Arsenal man who went to the States
cant complain can we, though the official site has to be polite i guess. result
can help but feel a little sad for montpellier, hope we can help em to second in the group behind us of course.
I believe the away tie at Olympiakos last season was a dead rubber (we were already guaranteed seeding to the knockout round), and we played mostly kids + Andre Santos, which is when he got hurt and left us without a left-back for all those months. I wouldn’t mind another dead rubber by Matchday Six, but let’s play Santos at striker this time.
Not bad at all.
AS I’ve said in your blog on Seddon. I had hoped we would get Braga as they copied us and play in red shirts with white sleeves. In Portugal they are known as ‘The Arsenalist’.
Still may be they can put one SAF and give him a red face to go with his red nose. 🙂
Travelling will be near the same as last year. Gelsenkirchen is 30 km away from Dortmnund, both Marseille and Montpellier are in south of France
Anybody know if the fixture list has been arranged yet for the group games?
DEC,
AT YOUR SERVICE
Match Day 1
Montpellier Hérault SC v Arsenal FC
Tuesday 18th September 2012
Kick Off: 19.45 UK
To be played at Stade de la Mosson, France
Match Day 2
Arsenal FC v Olympiacos FC
Wednesday 3rd October 2012
Kick Off: 19:45 UK
To be played at Emirates Stadium
Match Day 3
Arsenal FC v FC Shalke 04
Wednesday 24th October 2012
Kick Off: 19:45 UK
To be played at Emirates Stadium
Match Day 4
FC Shalke 04 v Arsenal FC
Tuesday 6th November 2012
Kick Off: 19:45 UK
To be played at Veltins Arena, Germany
Match Day 5
Arsenal FC v Montpellier Hérault SC
Wednesday 21st November 2012
Kick Off: 19:45 UK
To be played at Emirates Stadium
Match Day 6
Olympiacos FC v Arsenal FC
Tuesday 4th December 2012
Kick Off: 19:45 UK
To be played at Karaiskaki Stadium, Greece
While we shouldn’t take anything for granted, we should be ok in this group. Not a bad draw. Not trying to be cynical but can anyone remember manure ever getting a difficult game in the champions league before or up to the quarters? It never seems to happen, they don’t get tested till about the semis, even though last year they flopped in first round it was against pub-standard teams.
Mercimuch Walter. An autumn to look forward to methinks. Hopefully a game for the kids in December.
Arsenal look to be good for cup games.. if we r not gonna score we won’t let you either.
CL defences aren’t nearly as committed as PL ones, they know the refs will penalise them too much for it. We were more of a CL team for the past few years, hopefully we’re able to mix physical and technical to devastating effect if the refs aren’t actively against us.
today on my way to work I heard a lot of Man Utd fans celebrating…..
Good group for us. HOPE we win the away match at Greece this time.
colario: Almost got it, but I think the term is ‘Arsenalistas’ for the way they play. Better than being Farcalistas I say.
Anyway, it is a way better group than City have got and even Chelsea, hopefully this means that although we cant assume a push over, we should be able to relax a bit (if things go well) towards the end, like last year v Olympiacos.
We need to finish first to avoid the big guns, at least until we are in full swing and our players are playing for each other then we take on on any and all of them teams.
We Shall Not Be Moved – will be sung again one day and I will be belting it out from my living room at 5am on a Thursday/Wednesday morning.
Tony, maybe we will lost again at Greece this season. We will get them at last match, and if we already pass, Arsene will send the kids to Greece.
@Ong Bing, my sentiments as well. I hope we have the group wrapped up after 5 games so the game in Greece will not affect our progress. That stadium is not a friendly one for us (or any visitors).
I don’t necessarily like facing Schalke but it could have been worse given the other teams in pot 2. At least we avoided long trips to Zenit/Kiev/Shakhtar. We also avoided PSG/Juve in pot 3 and Dortmund in pot 4.
Sounds easy but we have to be careful,my friend a Manure told me as they where going to punish Braga!! But it was the opposite and i had to chew 300$that day and i,m ready to do the same this time around.