So here we have it.
Group H
ARSENAL
Shakhtar Donetsk
Braga
Partizan
On the whole, very pleasing. At home, I truly believe we will smash those teams apart. The tricky part is the away ties. Alot of mileage will be clocked up by our players, but being the professionals they are, it shouldn't be a problem.
I didn't want us to draw Shakhtar Donetsk because of the distance. But on the upside, hopefully we can give Eduardo the send off he truly deserves. A proper classy gentleman.
Just a quick post this evening, off to the pub to watch football. Will analyse the drew properly tomorrow.
Come on you Gooners!
First time I've seen your blog, thanks to your comment on Another Arsenal Blog. My own is mainly about baseball, as I'm an American, and I only started watching soccer intently during the 2006 World Cup. But The Arsenal are like drugs, and I hope I get a big honkin' fix tomorrow just like I got last Saturday against poor out-of-their-depth Blackpool. (Even if it is at 7:30 AM my time. Not an easy time to scream and drink beer, but a fan's gotta do what a fan's gotta do.)
ReplyDeleteAs for the CL draw, it could be much worse. In the Invincibles season, 2003-04, Arsenal had to go to the San Siro (turning Arsenal 0-3 Inter into Inter 1-5 Arsenal) and the former Soviet Union twice (Lokomotiv Moscow and Dynamo Kiev). And Arsenal still won their Group after a rough start.
This time, by comparison, while no visit to the former Yugoslavia is a breeze, at least it's Partizan, and their fans are somewhat less daunting than those of their Belgrade arch-rivals Red Star, who practically started the Bosnian genocide under "ultra" leader Arkan. And I'd rather play Eduardo's Shakhtar than plan any Moscow team at the Lenin/Luzhniki Stadium.
Good luck on getting this blog going.