Good morning, TSFers! It’s Thursday which means tomorrow is Friday and that’s an excellent reason to feel alright about where you’re at. The Champions League draw is in a few hours. Matchday 1 starts Tuesday, September 8th — right around the corner. Does anybody else feel as if the seasons snuck up on them? I think once the transfer window closes on September 1st (next Tuesday) it will feel more like the season proper.
The CL draw pots were confirmed yesterday.
Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain (FRA) Bayern Munich (GER) Real Madrid (ESP) Liverpool (ENG) Inter (ITA) Man City (ENG) Arsenal (ENG) Barcelona (ESP) Atletico Madrid (ESP)
Pot 2: Borussia Dortmund (GER) Roma (ITA) Sporting CP (POR) Aston Villa (ENG) Porto (POR) Man United (ENG) Club Brugge (BEL) Real Betis (ESP) PSV (NED)
Pot 3: Feyenoord (NED) Lille (FRA) Bodo/Glimt (NOR) Napoli (ITA) RB Leipzig (GER) Villarreal (ESP) Fenerbahçe (TUR) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) Galatasaray (TUR)
Pot 4: Slavia Prague (CZE) Slovan Bratislava (SVK) Stuttgart (GER) AEK Athens (GRE) LASK (AUT) Como (ITA) Lens (FRA) Viking (NOR) Sabah (AZE)
Arsenal cannot be drawn away to Inter Milan but they can draw Inter at home. There is a rule that you cannot have the exact same League Phase fixture three seasons in a row. Which, of course, couldn’t have come into play until this year, the third of the new format. As always, you can’t draw a side from your home league at this point.
Who would you like to see Arsenal draw/avoid? Another way of asking that is who are the tough outs in each pot?
As was noted in the comments on yesterday’s CF, Tim Curry passed. As with Dolly Parton, the praise for him has been effusive from all corners. He was dedicated to his craft and immersed himself in his roles — that’s how you get the Muppets posting about your performance as Long John Silver and the entire gaming internet talking about your memorable moments in Command and Conquer: Red Alert 3 as a ridiculous Russian commander. Of course, he’s probably best known for playing Dr. Frank-N-Furter in the Rocky Horror Picture Show.
Curry and Dolly passing within 24 hours. What a saddening one-two punch.
