City handed baptism of fire

LOOK, I know you must all be aquiver with excitement at the prospect of Man U v Otelul Galati.

Agog with anticipation at the prospect of Chelsea pitting their wits against Genk. Flush with the universal hope that plucky little third-seed minnows Man City might get to slay the odd giant. And, as ever, fascinated to see how Arsenal will get on against, well, Arsenal.

But before we get around to addressing how the wheel of fortune treated the Premier League contenders in yesterday’s draw, spare a thought for the officials of Czech title holders and Champions League debutants Viktoria Plzen who were present in Monte Carlo.

Finding themselves lodged in Group H with the team widely acclaimed as the very best to ever take to a pitch in the history of the game, they could hardly have been surprised if a voice had boomed out over the PA in the Grimaldi Forum: “Welcome aboard your Champions League flight. First, we would like to point out the emergency exits.”

Still, if it’s any consolation to the new Viks, even a team as storied as AC Milan won’t feel too happy about having to face Barcelona either.

As for those other eye-catching newcomers, Manchester City, they will be relieved to have avoided the competition favourites even if Group A – in which they find themselves alongside Bayern Munich, Villareal and Napoli – should provide a testing examination of their newly established European credentials.

But, at the rate Roberto Mancini continues to strengthen an already star-studded squad, anything less than reasonably assured progress to the knock-out stages would be regarded as a disastrous setback by Manchester’s newest empire builders.

Their, um, noisy neighbours should encounter much less resistance after an exceedingly generous draw which was notable mainly for the fact that Bobby Charlton had been waxing emotional about the club’s first European Cup triumph moments before Benfica – the team they’d beaten at Wembley on that famous night in 1968 – popped up as their main rivals in Group C.

Bearing in mind the top two will go through from each of the eight groups, Chelsea face a substantial but hardly insurmountable challenge in a group containing Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen, and Genk.

But no sooner had Arsenal experienced the relief of qualifying for the draw than they were hit by a sting in the tail, with German sensations Borussia Dortmund – who last season became the youngest side ever to win the Bundesliga and did so in swaggering style – installed as the nominal bottom seeds in a group which also contains experienced opposition in the form of Marseille and Olimpiakos.

The draw for the group stages of the Champions League is a bit like the eve of the opening day of the domestic season when the grass is equally green on all pitches and everyone, from the heavyweights to the neophytes, is entitled to dream of glorious nights to come.

Yet, once the action kicks off, the group stage can resemble something of a phoney war.

Spurs might have entertained us all and given their supporters some golden European memories last season but even topping their group and eliminating AC Milan in the round of 16 ended up being the precursor to the disappointment of an ignominious exit at the hands of Real Madrid.

And, of course, Mourinho’s team, in turn, were seen off by a Barcelona side which went on to all but humiliate Manchester United in the final. And by the time that long night at Wembley was over, you can rest assured Alex Ferguson was gaining little consolation from the memory of having eclipsed Valencia, Rangers and Bursaspor in Group C.

Because it mixes league and cup formats, the Champions League is both a marathon and sprint.

The marathon bit might prove a financial winner for all involved but it’s next year’s sprint which will ultimately define real success or failure in Europe’s premier club competition.

And Barcelona’s definition of success goes way beyond qualifying from the group phase, negotiating the knock-out stages or even contesting the final itself in Munich next May. Their aspirations are on an altogether different level to the rest, as they look to become the first club to win the Champions League (as distinct from the old European Cup) two seasons in succession.

Lionel Messi put it like this in a recent interview: “Our motivation is to make history with Barca.”

Even as this distance, few would back against them doing it. Group therapy is all well and good but, eventually, you’ve got to face harsh reality.