The UEFA Champions League draw is getting released on Thursday and live stream coverage for the match selections comes from ESPN and the WatchESPN website as teams eagerly await their group and match opponents heading into the UCL for the 2014-15 season and it comes after Arsenal made it through, while Real Madrid is looking to defend their championship from last year.
This year there are a ton of great teams in the mix along with Real Madrid and they come in after winning the title over Atletico Madrid and that gave La Liga two teams in the final. Bayern Munich is looking to take it back after losing in the semis last year and that came after they won the title the previous season. PSG is in there from the French league and Liverpool makes a return, although they will be without Luis Suarez but they now have Mario Balotelli.
Liverpool and Barcelona would be a great matchup down the line after the Suarez move, while now the 32 teams will be drawn into groups. The pots have the teams divided up and some of the ones to keep an eye on are in the first pot, including Bayern, Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Porto, Arsenal and Atletico, while the second pot has names like Juventus, Man City, PSG and Borussia Dortmund.
The Spanish Primera Division had a moment last year with the La Liga final, while the Bundesliga teams will be looking to take it back. The Premier League has some strong teams involved, while Olympiakos, Bayer Leverkusen, Athletic Bilbao and Ajax are some of the other teams awaiting their matchups. There could be multiple groups of death this season and the first matches start very soon about two weeks into September. The draw is always an exciting time and then the group stages will conclude later in December.
The Premier League has four teams into this stage after the Gunners were able to get past Besiktas and that should give them a chance to keep things going in the group stage. Manchester City won the Premier League title last year and that puts the team into the mix and they should be one of the favorites to make a run. Liverpool came in second ahead of Chelsea and those three all qualified for this stage, while Arsenal was in fourth place and made it in for the 14th straight year and now they have advanced out of the playoff round and into the group stage.
The Champions League is one of the best competitions in Europe and everyone will be gunning for Real Madrid after Ronaldo led the team to a victory last year. 22 teams qualified for the group stage and 10 teams made it in through the playoff round and now the four pots are split and the clubs will be placed into four groups and also on the day, Manuel Neuer, Arjen Robben and Cristiano Ronaldo are up for the best player in Europe award and it's likely the Spanish star wins it.
Check here for the live coverage from the UEFA Champions League draw on ESPN.