Thursday UEFA drew teams from 4 pots to determine the groups to kick off the Champions League tournament. The top 2 teams from each group will advance to the round of 16. The teams that finish in third place will join the Europa League tournament. No team from any league can meet a team from the same league in the group stage.

Here are the groups:

Group A

• Manchester United FC
• FC Shakhtar Donetsk
• Bayer 04 Leverkusen
• Real Sociedad de Fútbol

Group B

• Real Madrid
• Juventus
• Galatasaray
• FC København

Group C

• SL Benfica
• Paris Saint-Germain FC
• Olympiacos FC
• RSC Anderlecht

Group D

• Bayern Munich
• CSKA Moskva
• Manchester City
• Viktoria Plzen

Group E

• Chelsea FC
• FC Schalke 04
• FC Basel 1983
• FC Steaua Bucuresti

Group F

• Arsenal FC
• Olympique de Marsielles
• Borussia Dortmund
• SSC Napoli

Group G

• FC Porto
• Atlético Madrid
• FC Zenit
• Austria Wien

Group H

• FC Barcelona
• AC Milan
• AFC Ajax
• Celtic FC

Group of Death:

Every year they like to label one group as the “Group of Death” which is essentially the toughest group of them all. Their isn’t a clear cut winner like in last season. I would go with Group B and the trio of Real Madrid, Juventus and Galatasaray. Group H is certainly a interesting match up with Mario Balotelli leading AC Milan against Lionel Messia and Neymar of Barcelona. Ajax and Celtic aren’t as strong a third team as the Group B trio.

Interesting pairing:

Barcelona and Celtic are matched up again. If you’ll remember Celtic stunned Barcelona with a defeat behind the foot of a teenager, Tony Watt. Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund will be another interesting match of two top-tier clubs. The third match I’m excited to see is Bayern Munich and Manchester City in Group D.

Teams celebrating their draws:

Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, and Chelsea all have to be relieved to have dodged facing a top-tier opponent in the group stage. ManUtd’s toughest foe will be Shaktar Donetsk. Chelsea’s toughest foe will be the Bundesliga squad FC Schalke 04. PSG’s toughest foe in their group will be probably SL Benfica.

That being said, there are no easy opponents in the Champions League.