Lady Luck Smiles At Arsenal in the Champions League Group Stage Draw

Arsenal got lucky in the Champions League Group Stages draw on Thursday. They managed to avoid dangerous teams from the second seed such as Real Madrid, Lyon, Internazionale Milano, Juventus and Porto.

Incredible luck was with the Gunners and it saw them get relatively easy opponents in their group. They were drawn in group H and received as opponents Dutch side AZ Alkmaar, Greeks Olympiacos, and Belgian club Standard Liege.

Group H
1. Arsenal
2. AZ
3. Olympiacos
4. Standard Liege

Arsenal will resume their quest for European silverware on September 16, when they will travel to meet Belgian team Standard Liege.

Here is how the other groups turned out:

Goup A
1. Bayern
2. Juventus
3. Bordeaux
4. Maccabi Haifa

Group B
1. Manchester United
2. CSKA Moskva
3. Besiktas
4. Wolfsburg

Group C
1. Milan
2. Real Madrid
3. Marseille
4. Zurich

Group D
1.Chelsea
2. Porto
3. Atletico
4. APOEL

Group E
1. Liverpool
2. Lyon
3. Fiorentina
4. Debrecen

Group F
1. Barcelona
2. Internazionale
3. Dynamo Kyiv
4. Rubin

Group G
1. Sevilla
2. Rangers
3. Stuttgart
4. Unirea Urziceni

The Battle of Britain Initiates: Arsenal gets Celtic in the Champion's League

The draw for the Champion’s League play-off round has been made. Arsenal will face the Scottish side Celtic to decide who will proceed to the group stages of the tournament.

Earlier this season, Arsenal had the chance to test themselves against another Scottish side in the Emirates Cup; this time they are facing Rangers’ fierce rivals- Celtic, but they will be playing for much higher stakes.

The sides have never met before in an official match.

Here are some statistics of both clubs:

Celtic

Domestic achievements: 42 times winner of the Scottish Premier League, 34 times winner of the Scottish Cup, 14 times winner of the Scottish League Cup

International achievements: one time winner of the European Cup – 1967

Manager: Tony Mowbray

Last season’s standings in the Scottish League: 2nd

Last season’s top goal scorer: Scott McDonald – 16 goals

Key players: Gary Caldwell, Scott Brown

Average age of the squad: 26.23 years

Arsenal

Domestic achievements: 13 times winner of the FA Premier League, 10 times winner of the FA Cup, two times winner of the League Cup, 12 times winner of the FA Community Shield.

International achievements: one time winners of European Winners’ Cup – 1994, one time winners of Inner-Cities Fair Cup – 1970.

Manager: Arsene Wenger

Last season’s standings in the FA Premier League: 4th

Last season’s top goal scorer: Robin van Persie – 11

Key players: Cesc Fabregas, Robin van Persie

Average age of the squad: 22.8 years


The matches will be played on August 18, when Arsenal is travelling to Glasgow, and on August 26 is hosting Celtic at the Emirates Stadium.