Defending champion Internazionale was slotted into one of the deeper groups in a UEFA Champions League draw that saw the tournament avoid last year's tendency toward deep and thin groups.
Inter will be heavy favorites to win Group A, with Werder Bremen and Tottenham Hotspur expect to compete for second place. Dutch champions FC Twente round-out the quartet.
The grouping was typical for a draw that failed to produce a "group of death," such as last year's quartet that featured Barcelona, Inter, Rubin Kazan and Dynamo Kyiv. The draw also avoided last year's thin groups headed by Sevilla (Stuttgart, Rangers, Unirea Urziceni) and Arsenal (Olympiacos, Standard Leige, AZ).
Group B features Lyon, one of last year's semifinalists, drawn with Portuguese champions Benfica,Germany's Schalke and Hapoel Tel Aviv of Isreal.
Group C saw another fortunate draw for Manchester United, being slotted with Valencia (Spain), Rangers (Scotland) and Bursaspor (Turkey).
Barcelona headlines Group D, being drawn with Russian champions Rubin Kazan for the second straight year. Completing the only group featuring for league winners, the Spanish and Russian champions are joined by Copenhagen and Panathinaikos.
Bayern Munich and Roma feature in a top-heavy Group E that includes Switzerland champions Basel and Romania's CFR Cluj.
Chelsea gets a manageable draw in Group F, with Ligue 1 champions Marseille, Russian runners-up Spartak Moscow and debutantes Zilina of Slovakia.
In Group G, Milan and Real Madrid are drawn together for a second straight season, joined this year by Ajax and Auxerre. Group G is the only grouping that fails to feature a league winner.
In the last group (H), Shakhtar Donetsk and Sporting Braga will be expected to fight for the spot behind Arsenal, with Serbia's Partizan the group's fourth team.
The 32 clubs which qualified for Champions League were divided into four, eight team pots according to their UEFA club coefficient - a rating system used by the competition's organizers that gives clubs points based on matches won and milestones met in the preceded five seasons of Champions and Europa League soccer. The clubs with the seven highest ratings were put in Pot A with the holders, Internazionale, and drawn such that they could not face each other in group stage. Likewise, one team from each of pots B, C, and D were drawn into each group with a significant caveat: no group can contain more than one club from a given country.
Group A
- Pot A: Internazionale (1st place, Italy)
- Pot B: Werder Bremen (3rd place, Germany)
- Pot C: Tottenham (4th place, England)
- Pot D: FC Twente (1st place, Netherlands)
Group B
- Pot A: Lyon (2nd place, France)
- Pot B: Benfica (1st place, Portugal)
- Pot C: Schalke (2nd place, Germany)
- Pot D: Hapoel Tel Aviv (1st place, Israel)
Group C
- Pot A: Manchester United (2nd place, England)
- Pot B: Valencia (3rd place, Spain)
- Pot C: Rangers (1st place, Scotland)
- Pot D: Bursaspor (1st place, Turkey)
Group D
- Pot A: Barcelona (1st place, Spain)
- Pot B: Panathinaikos (1st place, Greece)
- Pot C: Copenhagen (1st place, Denmark)
- Pot D: Rubin Kazan (1st place, Russia)
Group E
- Pot A: Bayern Munich (1st place, Germany)
- Pot B: Roma (2nd place, Italy)
- Pot C: Basel (1st place, Switzerland)
- Pot D: CFR Cluj (1st place, Romania)
Group F
- Pot A: Chelsea (1st place, England)
- Pot B: Marseille (1st place, France)
- Pot C: Spartak Moscow (2nd place, Russia)
- Pot D: Zilina (1st place, Slovakia)
Group G
- Pot A: Milan (3rd place, Italy)
- Pot B: Real Madrid (2nd place, Spain)
- Pot C: Ajax (2nd place, Netherlands)
- Pot D: Auxerre (3rd place, France)
Group H
- Pot A: Arsenal (3rd place, England)
- Pot B: Shakhtar Donetsk (1st place, Ukraine)
- Pot C: Sporting Braga (2nd place, Portugal)
- Pot D: Partizan (1st place, Serbia)