Wednesday, June 10, 2009

The Next Champions League Is Born


The next Champions League is taking shape. While awaiting the name of the last qualified team to be announced on the 10th of June (the runners up of the Romanian championship), UEFA has made official the teams and dates of the next continental tournament.

Twenty-two teams have qualified for the group phase while 55 others will be taking part in the preliminaries. These include Fiorentina who will be playing in the last round (first leg on the 18th or 19th of August and return match on the 25th or 26th of August).

From the preliminaries which will see the participation of high level teams such as Arsenal, Lyon, Sporting Lisbon, Shakhtar, Panathinaikos and Stuttgart the teams which complete the group phase will emerge.

The draws of the eight groups with four teams each will take place in Montecarlo on the 27th of August, Juventus qualified for this phase together with inter and Milan. The bianconeri have been inserted in the third urn with the highest coefficient meaning that they can progress to the second turn if Arsenal, Lyon, Shakhtar or Sporting is eliminated in the preliminaries.

The group phase will begin on the 15th and 16th of September while the final will be played at the Santiago Bernabeu in Madrid on the 22nd of May 2010.

Juventus.com

No comments: