The Champions League 2011/12 - Group Stage Preview

With this season's Champions League about to kick off, I thought I would have a look at the competition, how I think the groups will end up and who will be the surprise packages. 

Sergio Kun Aguero

Group A

This season's 'Group of Death' sees Bayern Munich, Villarreal, Manchester City and Napoli competing for 2 spots into the knock outs. All four sides are good teams possessing strong attack lines in a little shaky at the back. Villarreal lost Cazorla in the summer but the Rossi and Nilmar form a strong front pairing. Napoli's front three of Hamsik, Cavani and Levezzi are as good a three as any other in the competition and at times unplayable. Manchester in Silva, Aguero, Nasri and Dzeko possess strong talent going forward with a Kompany to lead the back line. Bayern look the strongest in the Group buying 4 new additions to their back 5; Naeuer, Rafinha, Boateng and Badstuber. 

This is certainly the toughest of the Groups but Bayern should finish top. A strong defensive unit combined with Muller, Schweinsteiger and Robben up front should be enough to edge out Manchester City in 2nd. Napoli should have just enough to see themselves finish 3rd ahead of the Spaniards. 

Group B 

When the Groups were drawn, Inter would have been very happy to be drawn with CSKA Moscow, Lille and Trabonspor but their own deficiencies and the CSKA and Lille being underestimated could see Inter in trouble. The Milanese are struggling to adopt the new 3-4-3 formation, with Zanetti and Sneijder not quite able to fit into Gasperini's plans. In Akinfeev, CSKA have one of the best goalkeepers in Europe as well as artificial pitch that will be a pain to get accustomed to. Lille's two biggest summer deals were hanging onto star players Sow (striker) and Hazard (midfield) who led them to the domestic title last season and will likely cause the others in the Group many problems. Trabzonspor, who took Fenerbache's place in the competition will in all honesty struggle to not finish bottom of the Group. 

Inter Milan's pedigree and knowledge of how to manage the group stages should see them qualify just ahead of the others with it really being a toss up between the Russians and French to see who gets the other spot. The fact that CSKA have experienced European football for the past few years as well as their artificial pitch might just be enough to see them get the sport ahead of Lille but dont be shocked if its the other way round. 

Group C

Wayne Rooney 

When the draw was made, Manchester Utd could not have been happier. Benfica while good are not the force they used to be even last season; losing Coentrao was a huge blow. Basel still carried by the veteran Frei do have some good talent coming through like Shaquiri, well known to England fans and Romanian side Otelul Gelati are in the competition for the first time. 

This is one of the those Groups where you would expect the teams to finish as they are ranked; Utd will expect to win the Group with maximum points with Benfica getting the other last 16 spot and Basel falling into the Europa League. 

Group D

Real Madrid will go up against Lyon, Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb. The additions of Sahin and Coentrao amongst others have made Madrid more pragmatic if less enjoyable to watch (Pedro Leon and Canales leaving the club) as they try and go a step further than last season. Lyon are very much the same as last year and will look to Lope, Gourcuff and Bastos to guide them into the knock-outs for yet another season. Last season's Dutch champions Ajax have a mix of youth, van der Wiel (defender) and Eriksen (midfielder) and experience, Ooijer (defender) but the loss of world class goalkeeper Stekelenberg to Roma over the summer was a massive blow. Dinamo have a mix of home grown Croats and South Americans and will be led by former Liverpool defender Igor Biscan. 

Madrid will expect to qualify from the Group first and do so comfortably with Lyon following them into the next round. The French side should have enough to stave off Ajax who with the exception of Eriksen lack any dynamic talent going forward. 

Group E

Group E pits Chelsea, Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk up against one another. Chelsea have added Villas-Boas to try and lead them to their first European title alongside new signings Mata and Mereiles. Valencia have lost that same player, Mata to Chelsea, but the additions of Canales and Parejo to free scoring striker Soldado should see them do well nonetheless. Leverkusen lost star man and midfield engine Vidal to Juventus over the summer but will look to the combination of Renato Augusto and Kiebling to try and fire them into the knock-outs. Belgian champions Genk will look to 23 year old captain and midfield enforcer Hubert to progress but in truth will struggle to not finish bottom of the Group.

Chelsea should have enough to finish top of the Group, with Valencia taking the second spot available. Soldado will be difficult to stop and the loss of Vidal over the summer will prove to be a massive loss to the Germans. 

Mario Gotze

Group F

One of the most interesting and even Groups sees Arsenal take on Marseille, Olympiacos and Borussia Dortmund. Olympiacos will be tough particularly at home but the lack of real quality will see them struggle and finish bottom of the Group. The losses of Cesc and Nasri will have set Arsenal back greatly but Mertesacker is a massive addition to a sometimes fraut backline. Marseille have not bought much over the summer but keeping the likes of Valbuena, Ayew and Diawara has been huge for last seasons French champions. Dortmund, last year's surprise German league winners have a young and hugely talented side. Gotze and Kagawa will terrorise defences in an effort to supply star forward Barrios to put the goals away. 

Three sides will be competing for the two places and in truth its very much pick two out of three. I expect Dortmund to top the Group with the others unable to cope with the pace of their game. Expect Arsenal just to take the 2nd spot ahead of Marseille but if the positions are reversed, it will be anything but a shock. 

Group G

Porto, Shakhtar, Zenit St. Petersburg and APOEL compete in Group G. Porto are severely hampered by the losses of manager Villas-Boas to Chelsea and goal scoring beast Falcoa to Athletico Madrid but managed to hang on to Hulk up front. Shakhtar possess a contingent of Brazilians, Fernandinho, Jadson and Willian who will pose all of the sides in the Group no end of problems with their quick and slick style. Zenit under Advocat with rely heavily on defensive stalwart Bruno Alves and fellow Portuguese national team member Danny for the goals. APOEL will struggle. 

Shakhar should finish top of the Group. Their quick and accurate game play should be too much for the others to handle. Porto will finish just ahead of Zenit who will have to fall away to the Europa League but would be worth a punt of winning the competition come May. 

Group H

Lionel Messi

The reigning European Champions, Barcelona, are up against AC Milan, Bulgaria's BATE Borisov and Czech Champions Vitoria. Barcelona have added Cesc and Sanchez to add depth to their squad and allow more flexibility and rotation to occur. Milan have made some astute signings getting Mexes (defender Roma) and Taiwo (defender Marseille) for free and Aquilani (Liverpool) on loan. Bate will rely on Brazilian striker Alex Portfirio for goals while Vitoria possessing a side made entirely of home grown players will be tough. 

Of all the Groups this appears to be the easiest to predict with Barcelona and Milan simply being too strong leaving BATE and Vitoria to fight it out for the Europa League place. 

Bizarre Sporting Injuries

This time last year Michael Jordan threw his back out playing a friendly round of golf picking up his tie after a shanked drive so I thought have a look at some of the more bizarre ways in which sports stars have injured themselves.

Paulo Diogo - Football
Little known Paulo Diogo was so excited about scoring for Swiss side Servetter that he jumped the fence near the crowd to celebrate with the fans. Unfortunately for him, his wedding finger got caught on the fence, cutting his  ring finger entirely off. The surgeons could not reattach his finger.

Chris Hanson - American Football
In 2003, the Jacksonville Jaguars coach had a bizarre ways of motivating his players as he kept telling them to 'chop wood' and accordingly installed a large piece of wood with an axe in the locker room. Hanson one day managed to lose balance and swipe deep into his right leg causing him to miss the rest of the season.

Safe hands Canizares

Santiago Canizares - Football
Heading into the 2002 World Cup, Canizares was regarded as one of the finest goalkeepers in the World, competing for the Spanish #1 jersey. Shaving at the side's training camp changed all this as he proceeded to drop a bottle of after shave on his foot, with shards of glass penetrating into his right foot.

Lionel Simmons - Basketball
In the 90s, Simmons was a talented centre for the Sacremento Kings and earning countless awards for a string of good performances. He also loved playing tetris, some much infact that he injured himself while trying to complete the game; getting wrist tendonitis.

Torrance wide awake 

Sam Torrance - Golf
One of the U.K.'s finest golfers, Torrance will go down in sporting history. In 1993 however he withdrew from the Open after he had bruised his chest sleepwalking into a flower pot. He later remarked 'I remember waking up and seeing this thing and I thought someone was in my room. I ran at it and it cracked my sternum'.

Steve Sparkes - Baseball
At a 1994 spring training camp, the pitcher was led astray by motivational speakers. 'They were bending iron bars and ripping phone books in half' he remarked 'Me and a couple of guys were trying to see how the speaker had torn the phone book in two. i got mine started but my shoulder just slipped out'.

Chris Lewis - Cricket
During a tour of the Windies, the former England bowler, had his head shaved by fellow fast bowler Devon Malcolm, whilst asleep. Believing that his dark pigment would protect him from the sun, he spent he day in the field without a hat. He suffered sunstroke and missed two test matches.

Anderson Silva - The greatest athlete you've probably never heard of

'The Spider'

Last Saturday night Anderson Silva defeated Yushin Okami to retain the UFC Middleweight Championship in the 2nd round of 5 with a vicious flurry of strikes. The victory extended Silva's record of successful title defences to 9; a UFC record by some distance.At the same time, the victory increased a general winning streak which dates back some 5 and a half years to 2006. Silva now finds his overall MMA record standing at 31-4 (with 2 of his losses coming as a result of technicalities and submitting the other two times both of which came in his first 10 fights).

Anderson is widely regarded as the Pound - For - Pound best fighter in MMA given this record competing with the likes of Georges St Pierre, Jose Aldo and Jon Jones but this victory now propels Silva into the realm of the greatest mixed martial artist of all time and alongside the likes of Pele, Muhammad Ali and Roger Federer as a one of the greatest sportsman ever.

A record which includes 4 defeats might on the face of it not seem particularly impressive but in the MMA world defeats are not just acceptable but expected. The beauty of MMA is that we get to see many different style competing in the same ring; wrestlers, boxers, jiu-jitsu, judo, karate, muay thai practitioners amongst many others. As a result, styles make fights; a boxer might be able to beat all other boxers but once he comes up against a wrestler, the inability to cope with take downs will be his achilles heel. As a result, mixed martial artists are expected to encounter defeats and to go 14/15-0 is unheard of. Silva's record after his first 10 first is 23-2; simply amazing.

The names that he has beaten amount to a list of who is who of future hall of famers. Guys like Vitor Belfort, Dan Henderson and Rich Franklin. Anderson has even stepped up in weight to light heavyweight and beaten two former UFC champions with ease. The manner in which he has beaten them is equally if not more impressive. Chael Sonnen, a U.S. Olympic wrestler, was forced to submit to a triangle armbar after 4 and a half rounds of dominance. Rich Franklin was destroyed with vicious knees in the clinch and Vitor Belfort was knocked out with a front kick to the chin. Anderon has displayed a full bag of tricks; on the ground, standing up, in the clinch, with his hands, with his feet...pretty much anything.

Roger Federer is widely regarded as the great tennis player ever. What makes so great is the fact that he has been able to make fantastic players (Nadal, Roddick and Agassi) look average. The manner in which he has accumulated all of his grand slam titles puts hi a cut above the rest. The manner of Anderson's victories does the same. In the same way that at times Federer looked like he was playing a different game applies verbatim to Anderson Silva.

He has a larger than life character that seems befitting of Muhammad Ali. The way in which Ali would verbally destroy his opponents both in an out of the ring and then knock them out gave him an aura. Anderson fights with hands down almost begging his opponent to try and do something and then just calmly steps forward and floors them. Such a care free approach renders it easy to draw parallels.

He is a man who has dominated is sport in a  way befitting of Roger Federer, Tiger Woods or Michael Jordan in their primes. He is a man who has made elite world class athletes look like amateurs. He is a man who has done things in the octagon that others simply could not dream of.  Unfortunately he is a man who at the age of 36 may only have another 2 years in him which might not be enough time to see him get the recognition he deserves.

Simply put Anderon Silva is one of the greatest athletes ever.