CSKA Moscow
- Finished 2nd in the Russian Premier League last season behind Rubin Kazan (who are in the group of death with Barca and Inter).
- Their manager is Zico, who represented Brazil in three World Cups, and his brother Edu in the assistant manager.
- In the past seven years they have won three league titles, five Russian Cups, four Russian Super Cups and the UEFA Cup.
- Play at the Luzhniki Stadium where United won the 2008 European Cup.
- Their Brazilian striker, Vágner Love, was the top scorer in Russia last season.
Besiktas
- Current Turkish champions
- Their top scorer last season was Brazilian striker Bobô.
- They once went 56 games unbeaten in the league.
- Turky’s president, Abdullah Gül, is a big fan.
Wolfsburg
- Current German champions, their first title.
- Their Brazilian striker Grafite was the top scorer in the German league last season with a massive 28 Bundesliga goals. The second highest scorer in the league was their Bosnian striker Edin Džeko with an also very impressive 26 league goals, and who has scored 2 goals in 3 games this season.
- 4th in the league this season after winning two and losing lose.
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tough trips to moscow as well as wolfsburg… but i don’t think it will be a problem. come on lads!
We shouldnt have any problems topping the group but the travelling is a problem. Especially away to Moscow 4 days before the game at Anfield. Fuckin typical
Wolfsburg are the toughest opponents here but we are Manchester United and we will beat whoiever you put in front of us.
im gutted as i have got 2 tix for all the 1st group home games… i was praying for one of the big boys!
for the club though, its one of the best poss…
good draw.there are some really tricky teams like athletico fiorentina wolfsburg lyon porto.so we were bound to get one of those teams.besiktas and cska should nt be much of a problem.the chilly weather in russia can be a problem though.
tricky.
need to be careful for away games…
the biggest challenge will be the Astro turf in Moskva
i’m expecting 1-0 results, but i’m looking forward to seeing us kick real madrid’s arse in the final at the bernabeu
sustaining success is so hard but so,so sweet when achived..
ONE UNITED!!!!!!!!!!!!
May what ever comes, we will sucseed!
MU RULZ!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well, could’ve been worse. I’m happy the way it is, and Wolfsburg is a really good team and Grafite is dangerous player.
German champs will always be a strong side, away trips to turkey and russia won;t be easy.
Not the worst group but not the best
Its a difficult draw especially with the travelling to Moscow and the hostile atmosphere in Turkey. And its not lost on anyone that Wolfsburg are the German Champions. Its gonna be harder than people think. Anyone knows if the games following our European travels are home games or away games?
@FuckRafa – I doubt they will even get there. They have a very tough group, bound to finish 2nd at best.
Tough fixtures. Wolfsburg definitely pose the biggest threat, but should have no problem finishing first
I like what Berbatov said recently ” Teams in Europe fear us”. The impression I often used to get sometimes with SAF and the way we play against teams in Europe is that we somehow have to accomodate them. i.e. their tactics, playing style etc. Even in the CL final against Barca. Did they or their manager change the way they played against us? No. Yes he asked Messi to play slightly different and tweaked his tactics but nothing major.
we on the other hand make massive changes to our tactics, playing style etc. Why?
Isn’t it about time we started to ask other teams questions?
Isn’t it time we went away from home and really spanked a team in their own back yard?
The games that stood out last season were Inter away, Arsenal away and Porto away. This time we need to go to CSKA Moscow, Wolfsburg and Besiktas and really beat these teams in their yard.
We need fear no team in Europe and must believe that we can go anywhere against anyone and win. If we have the hunger and belief that we can win the CL again.
Yes we play liverpool away after one of these games, but that’s why we are United. We can handle this type of situation because we are champions.
Much tougher than we would expect. Long trips (and f***ing fixtures), as well as 2 champions….not an easy hand (Arsenal on the other hand I think got the best pick)
Meeting Liverpool and Chelsea away after the 2nd and 3rd game isnt a nice thing at all, we need to be double-prepared for these games and cant really afford any slip-ups, which I believe all 3 teams have the ability to cause….
We need not worry or fear these teams. respect them Yes, because either they are champions of their respective leagues or have won it on many occasions. But we should go into these games with confidence that if we play our game and execute our tactics with intelligent play we will win and qualify for the next stage.
Could have been worse I think. Home form, as ever, will be the key. Its certainly a winnable group as opposed to a group of death like the Real Madrid/AC Milan one.
dont worry…wen we play liverpool away they would have played lyon at home so its not like theyll have an easy game! on the bright side they have an away trip to fiorentina before an away trip to stamford bridge! hahaha
@ KVN:
i always wonder why SAF sometimes changes his formation or tactics away from home against teams that are not as strong as us.. but then again you say that the arsenal and porto games stand out for you whilst not taking into account that we played with almost the same team and formation against barcelona…the tactics are the reason we have been so successful in away games in europe in the last 2-3 seasons..
i think this year we will play 442 unless we have injuries and stand toe-to-toe against the big teams.. bring on the arsenal!!
i think palying against liverpool and chelsea away from home after these CL tough games will be good for us. when we play against “lesser” teams aka Burnley we switch off too often and loose our focus and concentration. with these games in CL and EPL as Adrian said we cannot afford to slip up. so i see us playing our best football and growing in confidence.
On paper united should top this group. But realistically these teams aren’t walkovers. Is gonna be tough expecially going away from OT. But we’ll definately go through. C’mon reds!!!
We have too much quality in depth for this group to cause us any real problems, Wolfsburg are something of an unknown but if you saw their name in the Europa draw you would still ask who the feck are they.
United to top the group…Maybe a tricky trip to Moscow we all now how we dont like to play there lol…No seriously if United come unstuck in that group i’ll eat my hat…….its a new one I got from the megastore two weeks ago so I dont wanna eat it
N0bbs
@ SimSima69
i agree with u mate about how we’ve started to get results away from home with our different formation. but the only caution i would say that as we move to a 442 when we come across a team that plays 3 midfield players we’ll always be outnumbered and it’s an area where we could be overrun. so we’ll need to adjust to some degree. bcos i can’t see Carrick dominating midfield and occupying 2 players like Keane and Robson used to do. Carrick and Anderson really need to step up and see what Fletcher is doing. i think we could – in theory – play these 3 in midfield. but they really need to be on their game.
Not happy! How the hell do Arsenal get away with easy groups season after season!?
easy group for united.
And we will see the battle for the second place.
united need to kick the shit out of Besiktas and
Wolfsburg , home and away so they can send the reserves to moscow so the first team will be 100% 4 days later
We have quite a tricky group. Our away trips to Turkey,Germany and that early evening wintery kickoff in Moscow are all going to be tricky. Wolfsburg are a very good side these days and Russian sides in recent years have done well in Europe. We should still win the group. 3 home wins are a must. Then we’ll get AC or Real in the 2nd round. As for Arse,I dont understand how they always get such a favourable group.
@Mic
if its any consolation, arsenal play villa(A) united(H) chelsea (A) liverpool (H) back to back in the space of 13days in jan/feb.. hahahahahahaha
Wtf? I think the UEFA officials have made a huge mistake? No Man city? Do they know how Massive city are?
On a serious note, A lot of folks here dont watch other leagues thats why they are writing these other teams off. Guys, this is a tricky group. There are no walkovers here. Remember how we thought we were gonna sweep porto away last season? If we play well and take our chances, we’ll definitely come out tops but it wont be easy though.
an easy group success all d way
I don’t like the tie against Wolfsburg but we should be able to get at least 10 points from this group which will see us through. We have an incredible record in Europe over the past few years. We’ve got the longest unbeaten home record in the history of the Champions League and so long as Old Trafford remains a fortress there’s very little to worry about.
Wolfsburg is underestimated because nowatch Bundesliga games I guess?
read my lips: The wolfes are hot and confident and they give a shit about names nor history. See Milan or Bayern. On the pitch they have given proof of playing some dream games. Fast, agressiv and with touch, no bulls no gimmicks. Misimovic, Grafite, Dzeko & co will be mad!
Although the tie is a bit tricky. I expect the team to play be more hard to break down given we switch back to 4-4-2 formations. If everyone perform to their best, i expect us to go through. We are the finalist of Champions League and Champions of England. We should show some confident in our team.
wolfsburg have lost their best player and sacked their manager since winning the league last season, we should beat them handy home and away
agreed with ghtt we need results before that away game to cska so we can rest players for the dippers game.
Good group i guess. The travelling sucks big time and how typical: We travel to Moscow 4 days before the Liverpool game.
On another note.. How the hell did John Terry get defender of the year ahead of Vida!!?
We’ll kill them.
SB
we will be coming up against lots of Brazilian strikers wont we !!!!!!
Off topic – Vidic should have been defender of the year. How terry got it I do not know
Don’t worry,we will all deal with them.Vida,Rio,Evra,Jonny,O’shea,Neville,will put the strikers in their pocket like they did to Ibrahvic,cruz,Lsandlopez,Bayo.Up united……
Tough draw. We don’t have especially good track records against German, Russian or Turkish teams…No wonder Fergie looked a bit stressed.
Giles is right. I remember us getting knoicked out of the UEFA cup by Torpedo Moscow and Rotor Volgograd. I think we have won at Turkey once in 5 attempts and Germans always give us hard games over there. So, the important thing is that we beat them all at OT. That will be the platform. After that, hopefully all 3 of them will cut points off each other.
Wolfsburg are 4th after winning 2 and losing lose???
Well happy with the draw, didn’t want Inter or Real (duh, obviously!), should pick up 9 points at home, and I’d say at least 4 points away to qualify us comfortably.
How can i get ticket for Besiktas v UNITED. I live in Turkey and i want to watch match with our supporters.Help me guys! Thanks.
Another fact about Besiktas … we sold them Kleberson. They’ll be out for revenge now!
i was hoping we would get Real.. that would have some two games, would have loved to see us beating the hell out of them
simple games? this is europe there is none these are quality teams, we slipped up away to burnley, cant rule out slippin up away to top teams from other leagues too, if we are confident and play our own football we will win surely but need to beleive it ourselves and not play to suit the home teams, gotta show em how united roll
Seemples
Or not.
Not best draw, not worst, middling draw, no room for poor performance, but if we play solidly well we should win.
I don’t see any of the big teams failing to qualify for the next round, thats where the Champions ‘League’ will really begin..
But it’s good innit? New teams to play, it’s better than playing the same teams again and again. I like the new system of guaranteeing some minnow champion sides automatic entry, even though they will surely get knocked out!
O and I think the excuse of tough European games before tough league games is overrated. These guys are professionals and have fantastic fitness levels.
All of their “big shots” are from Brazil. Ando will show them which Brazillian is better.
Must win all home games. Get one win away and that’ll be enough. That or draw a few
No games are simple in the UCL.
Underestimating the opposition would be a huge mistake.
United should never go anywhere and fear the opposition.
But the bigger they come the harder they fall.
And beating United will be top of everyones lists!
Fairly happy with the draw but not the easiest places to go away from home.
I think Moscow will be a hard trip in October just before the Liverpool game but we’ve been that far before and got great results,Kiev was a walk in the park but I think they will be stronger.
Besiktas used to be a pretty handy and beat the dippers at there place but then got humped 8-0 at Anfield.We Should have no problems them.
Wolfsburg could be tricky but I dont know too much about them as they’ve only really come onto the big scene in the last 2 seasons.Their home record is really good and they bang in the goals.I always had them on my coupon last season.
I dont know how they were in pot 4 being the German champions though.
I think we’ll go through with relative ease,win the homes and get a few results away.Sorted.
The UCL is composed of the best in Europe, so no easy matches beforehand and also cannot underestimate any team. But United can get through to the next stages provided they stay focus and no serious injuries to the main players
Never thought the 2 top scorers in germany played for Wolfsburg .
We`l need vida and rio at their best…they always are by the way.
Come on Man UUUUUUU!!!!
The draw is a tricky one. Every game is tricky. And when was the last one we met each of these teams? We are not familiar with them.
My expectation: 2W 3D 1L = 9pts. and will still finish top of the group.
But new opposition means its more interesting hehe
Toughish group, think we’ll top it though. Saf mite play 4 3 3 away from home pack the midfield so we dint get outnumbered. of topic scarface scored then done that stupid cupping the ears, i think he needs a hug.
NO easy games but if you want to win the European Cup you have to beat the best anyway.
Arsenal fan here, I think we got an easier group travelwise than United. I have no doubt that United will progress but the travelling will probably force Ferguson to rotate more than he would have liked.
You were a bit unlucky on the fixtures though, away to a strong Tottenham side, then away to Besiktas in Turkey then the Manchester Derby at home in september. Away to Moscow in october and a Liverpool match a few days later. It will be a tough couple of months.
Look forward to seeing to you all tomorrow, I always enjoy our matches there the atmosphere in Old Trafford is top notch, I just hope your team play like they did in the second half against Wigan, we’re on fire now and I wanna see how our resurgent team do against the best.
I grew up in Moscow. CSKA fans are known for their aggressive behavior, especially towards red-shirted Spartak fans. However, they are looking up to English fans, and want to be like them.
Therefore, I would strongly recommend to:
1. Stay in groups
2. Walk confidently
3. Follow the three classic Russian don’ts: “Don’t be afraid, don’t ask for anything, and don’t trust”
Merrill
Besiktas away will be the most difficult game in my opinion. They have perhaps the second most fierce home atmosphere in Turkey (after Galatasaray). The surprise package will surely be Wolfsburg given their performance last season in the Bundesliga, BUT…Felix Magath has left them for Schalke over the summer. They still have more or less the same squad so they too will be a challenge.
this would be a good experience for these young united players. but i dont think united would have difficulty in qualifying for the 2nd round.