Spartak Moscow drawn into Group F
© uefa.com
FC Spartak Moscow has been drawn into Group F with FC Chelsea (England), Olympique de Marseille (France) and MSK Zilina (Slovakia).
Here are the dates of home and away games in Group Stage:
15th September — «Olympique de Marseille» – «Spartak Moscow»
28th September — «Spartak Moscow» – «MSK Zilina»
19th October — «Spartak Moscow» – «FC Chelsea»
3rd November — «FC Chelsea» – «Spartak Moscow»
23rd November — «Spartak Moscow» – «Olympique de Marseille»
8th December — «MSK Zilina» – «Spartak Moscow»
Here is analysis of group F from goal.com:
Teams:
Chelsea Marseille Spartak Moscow Zilina
CHELSEA
Last season at home: Winners, English Premier League; Winners, FA Cup; Quarter-finalists, League Cup. Last season in Europe: Champions League last 16 Coach: Carlo Ancelotti, since June 2009 Playing style: Physical and direct, look to dominate opponents Strength: Prolific forward players with an eye for goal Weakness: Technically suspect defence prone to occasional lapses Key men: Didier Drogba, Michael Essien, John Terry Realistic Objective: Champions League finalists Starting XI (4-3-3): Cech; Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, Cole; Mikel, Essien, Lampard; Anelka, Malouda, Drogba.
OLYMPIQUE DE MARSEILLE
Last season at home: Winners, Ligue 1; Round of 32, Coupe de France; Winners, Coupe de la Ligue. Last season in Europe: Third in their Champions League group, Europa League round of 16. Coach: Didier Deschamps since summer 2009 Playing style: Likely to attack primarily down the flanks and leave a burly front player to cause the damage in the box. Strength: Should be a team with plenty of goals in them. Weakness: Lacking stability, cohesion and real European experience throughout the side. Key men: Gabriel Heinze, Lucho Gonzalez Realistic Objective: Quarter-finals Starting XI (4-2-3-1): Mandanda; Azpilicueta, Mbia, Heinze, Taiwo; Kabore, Cisse; Remy, Lucho, A. Ayew; Gignac.
SPARTAK MOSCOW
Last season at home: Runners-up in Russian Premier League Last season in Europe: N/A Coach: Valery Karpin since April 2009 Playing style: Attractive short-passing game Strengths: Lots of Brazilian talent, imaginative play, plenty of attacking options on the bench Weaknesses: No decent goalkeeper, defensive errors, young team with no experience Key men: Welliton, Alex, Ibson Realistic Objective: Third and Europa League place Starting XI (4-5-1): Pesyakov; Parshivlyuk, Pareja, Suchy, Makeev; Sheshukov, Ibson, McGeady, D.Kombarov, Alex; Welliton.
MSK ZILINA
Last season at home: Winners, Slovak Corgon Liga; Third round, Slovak Cup Last season in Europe: Eliminated in Europa League play-offs Coach: Pavel Hapal since July 2009 Playing style: Uncomplicated and methodical, with good organisation Strength: The side’s cohesion makes them a sum far greater than their constituent parts Weakness: They lack much individual quality to get them out of trouble Key men: Martin Dubravka, Emil Rilke, Momodou Ceesay Realistic Objective: Avoid finishing bottom of the group Starting XI (4-4-2): Dubravka; Guldan, Pecalka, Placek, Mraz; Rilke, Bello, Jez, Majtan; Ovavec, Ceesay.
Analysis
Chelsea would appear to have a fairly straightforward route to the knockout rounds of the 2010/11 Champions League. They will, however, have to negotiate Marseille, coached by one of their former players Didier Deschamps; Spartak Moscow, who could play the role of party-poopers in this group; and Slovakian champions MSK Zilina.
Carlo Ancelotti’s red-hot Blues will be happy with this draw, although they will not relish the tricky visits to Russia and Slovakia. The west London side scored 12 goals in their first two Premier League games: Florent Malouda and Didier Drogba were shown to be in particularly insatiable form, having notched up three goals each so far, with Nicolas Anelka and Salomon Kalou close behind with two each. Goals are always crucial in the Champions League, and Chelsea should have no problems scoring them — just don’t expect half a dozen goals every matchday. They will be runaway favourites to top the group.
The English giants« closest rivals to top Group F will be French champions Marseille. L’OM had a tumultuous start to the new campaign when Mamadou Niang left the club, Hatem Ben Arfa threatened to walk, and they lost their opening Ligue 1 game. Things have improved for coach Deschamps, however, with the captures of Loic Remy and Andre-Pierre Gignac and they got back on track on the domestic front. Marseille failed to get out of the group stage last season, but they will feel confident of snapping up second spot in the group this time around.
Russian sides are always difficult and unpredictable and Spartak Moscow will fancy their chances to sneak that second place away from Marseille. Last season’s Russian Premier League runners-up are already halfway through their current domestic campaign and theycould focus on European competition as they languish out of the top six at present in the Russian table. Playing at the Luzhniki Stadium in the dead of winter will be a tall order for any opponent, and coach Valery Karpin will be using that to his advantage.
Wrapping up the group is yet another league champion, but a debutant in Europe’s blue-ribbon club competition, Zilina. They comprehensively beat Sparta Prague 3-0 on aggregate in the play-off round to progress to the group stage for the first time in their history. They are very much the outsiders, but there have been surprises aplenty in the Champions League in the past, and while Zilina are always capable of causing an upset in a game or two, they will need more than that to qualify for the last 16.
Source: uefa.com
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