Chelsea Get Kind Draw In Champions League

When you consider who Chelsea could have been drawn against the draw for the group stages of this season Champions League has worked out very favourably indeed for Andre Villas-Boas and his team.

Chelsea are the seeded team in Group E and will play Valencia, Bayer Leverkusen and Genk in their six group games. The first game is against Bayer Leverkusen on 13 September at Stamford Bridge and one player in particular will be looking forward to the game.

That player is Michael Ballack and he spent four successful years at the club between 2006 and 2010. He started over 160 games for Chelsea and scored 26 times and he will keen to get one over his old club when he returns. Chelsea have never met Leverkusen before, but they should be confident of claiming at least four points from the two games.

The first away game will be on 28 September against Valencia and it will be a quick return to Spain for new signing Juan Mata. It is funny how the draw throws up these kind of games and it will be interesting to see what kind of reception he receives on his return to the Mestalla.

Chelsea have played Valencia four times before, winning both away games 2-1 and drawing both home games. If you offered Andre Villas-Boas that set of results right now he would take them I’m sure. All of those four games were in 2007, with two in the knock-out stages of the 2006-07 season and two in the group stages of the 2007-08 season.

The final team in the group is Genk. It will be a quick return to Belgium for another new signing Romelu Lukaku. Genk have started the season in Belgium poorly with just one win from their opening four games, a run of results which has left them in mid table. The home game takes place on October 19 with the away fixture two weeks later on November 1. This is definitely a fixture where Andre-Villas Boas will be targeting two wins and by the time the final two group games come along Chelsea could find themselves in the unenviable position of having already qualified.

I cant wait for the Champions League campaign to start, and like many of you I am looking for a good season in the competition. This could just be Chelsea’s year, fingers crossed. Blue is the colour!