Group E - Manchester United, Villarreal, Celtic and AaB
The opening game in Group E on Wednesday night in many ways represents a clash between the lovely and the horrible faces of success.
Manchester United are a footballing behemoth, bulldozing their way to success after success on the back of a corporate, cash-driven and seemingly unstoppable operation, fuelled by shirt sales in Japan and tourists in the club shop.
Villarreal on the other hand are from a town of around 50,000 people, and have based their remarkable success on prudence, revitalising the careers of old stagers and a healthy investment in youth, alongside a brilliant manager in Manuel Pellegrini. They are so lovely, their president/owner Fernando Roig recently said: "I've never seen football as a business."
Still, United haven't showed any signs of caring two hoots about what people think yet, and won't be starting soon. They will have to watch themselves against their Spanish visitors on Wednesday, with Pellegrini fashioning a skillful and nimble team, centred around the likes of Sanit Cazorla, Ariel Ibagaza, Nihat and of course old man Robert Pires. They've started well domestically too, adding a 1-0 win at the weekend to an opening day draw with Osasuna.
Elsewhere in the group, Celtic will kick things off by defending one of the best home records in Europe against Danish side Aab. Only Barcelona have won a Champions League game at Parkhead, but their away form is as wretched as their home record is exceptional. No wins away from Glasgow so far, which probably represents the major reason for their poor qualification success rate, which they've managed just once. They've made a faintly iffy start to the SPL season, drawing with Dundee United and of course suffering a 4-2 shafting at the hands of the dreaded Rangers. Matters will not have been helped by playmaker Shunsuke Nakamura's revelation that he might leave the club in January to return to Japan.
Completing the group is AaB, rather incongruously managed by Bruce Rioch. The man who famously brought Dennis Bergkamp to English football has done a pretty spiffing job at AaB, winning them the league title last season and overcoming Rangers' conquerors FBK Kaunas (or 'Hearts B') in the qualifiers. Not too many familiar names in their squad, although Southampton fans will remember the briefly rather good Marek Saganowski, currently on loan in Denmark.
Group F - Bayern Munich, Lyon, Fiorentina and Steaua Bucherest
The Champions League looked slightly odd last year without Bayern Munich's name in the draw.
This year they're back, and boy do they look strong. Despite being without Franck Ribery for the opening stages, they still have a squad stacked with enough talent to leave Lukas Podolski on the bench most weeks. Having started the season with a couple of draws, they've hit their stride in the last two games with wins over Hertha Berlin and Cologne, bagging seven goals (four from strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose) in the process.
They kick things off against Steaua, making their third straight appearance in the group stages. They're not to be trifled with either, having tied Galatasary's shoelaces together and pushed them out of the tournament in the qualifiers. They have also made a typically strong start to the season, not losing since the opening day, and winning five of the other six games. All round genius and possessor of one of the most pleasing names in football, Marius Lacatus, is their boss, who was part of the all-conquering European Cup winning Steaua side of 1986.
The other game sees Lyon start their latest attempt at cracking Europe, after casually wandering their way to yet another Ligue 1 title last season (that's seven now for those that have lost count), possibly while smoking a cheroot and shrugging nonchalantly. They're so far ahead of the competition in Gaulle that they even managed to bag the domestic double with Alain Perrin in charge, although he was shipped out in the summer. The message from that sort of cut-throat decision is clear - a serious charge at the Champions League is chairman Jean-Michel Aulas's aim. Predictably enough, they top Ligue 1 this season, with Karim Benzema continuing to be bloody good, scoring five times in five games.
They face Fiorentina first up, who under the guidance of Cesare Prandelli played some of the most entertaining football in Serie A last season. Their line-up this season features Alberto Gilardino, looking to re-build his career after a less than successful spell at AC Milan, and one Adrian Mutu, who will play providing he finds time among dreaming up money-making schemes. According to FIFA, Mutu owes Chelsea the rather hefty sum of £13.84million, compensation for being caught with his nose in a pile of 'special powder' back in 2004, although the matter is currently in the hands of a selection of sharp-suited lawyers, so we should probably shut up about it for the moment. Also in la Viola's ranks is a whipper snapper by the name of Stevan Jovetic, a Montenegrin forward regarded as one of the most promising in Italy, and definitely one to watch out for.
Group G - Arsenal, Porto, Fenerbahce and Dinamo Kiev
If you have a spare minute and you're monumentally bored, take a look on the UEFA website at the squad Arsenal have registered for the Champions League. You're allowed to submit 25 players on an 'A' list, then an unlimited number on a 'B' list, providing they've been 'locally' trained.
And boy has Arsene Wenger paid close attention to that 'umlimited' bit, naming 42 players in total, including the heavyweight likes of Rhys Murphy, Sanchez Watt, Thomas Cruise (probably not that one) and Paul Rodgers (again, probably not that one). Whether weight of numbers will be enough for Arsenal to win the thing isn't certain, but they should definitely get through this group without massive problems.
Slightly less profilgate in their squad naming is Dinamo Kiev, for some years now officially the Trickiest Away Tie in the Champions League. They may not be the force they were in the Shevchenko/Rebrov glory days (they don't even win the Ukrainian league every year these days), but they will still cause a few problems for the rest. Seven games in, they currently lie second in the league behind Metalurh Donetsk, but will come into this game buoyed from beating their title rivals last time out.
Another trip nobody likes making is to Fenerbahce, where daft racist and European Champion Luis Aragones currently holds the reigns. And the Turks have made some astute additions to their squad over the summer, the most impressive is probably last season's Spanish top-scorer Dani Guiza, who if the gossip rags are to be believed turned down a bunch of Europe's big boys in favour of Fenerbahce. Emre joined from Newcastle too, adding to an already useful squad that gave Chelsea a fright last time out.
Completing the group are Porto, Portuguese champions for five of the last six years, but shorn of some of their better players after a summer exodus. Jose Bosingwa left for Chelsea, Ricardo Quaresma to Inter Milan and Paulo Assuncao to Atletico Madrid. However, the likes of Lucho Gonzalez and Lisandro Lopez mean they will still cause a few problems, and if all goes to logic then they will probably duke it out for second spot with Kiev and Fenerbahce. Also, and magnificently, they have a Brazilian forward named 'Hulk' on their books.
Group H - Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit St Petersburg and BATE
The final group of the Champions League first stage could be the place to earn a little money at the bookies.
While they have won the Spanish league for the past two seasons, like any British Eurovision entry Real Madrid haven't performed on the continent for quite some time. They last reached the final in 2002 when they won the thing, didn't make it past the group stages in 2007/8 and last reached the quarter-final in 2004. For a club of the size and more importantly ambition of Real, that's a fairly shoddy record. Add to that their defence. Oh their poor defence. Iker Casillas is arguably the best keeper in the world, but without the injured Fabio Cannavaro the men protecting him are comical in the extreme. They've already shipped five goals in two domestic games, against the far from ferocious Deportivo and Numancia.
It's also very tricky to work out how Juventus are going to cope on their return to the Champions League. Missing since the calciopoli unpleasantness, Juve return with many of the big guns still in the black and white. Alex Del Piero and David Trezeguet are still banging in the goals, while giant Brazilian Amauri has already made an impact, scoring the only goal against Udinese this weekend. However, will their mixture of old boys and unproven types hold up to the stresses and strains of the top competition?
It might be prudent therefore, to place a small wager on Zenit St Peterburg to do well. The UEFA Cup winners impressed everyone on their run to the final last year, playing some mighty impressive football and scoring goals aplenty. They've also managed to keep hold of Andrei Arshavin, have spent a whole stack of cash on Portuguese midfielder Danny, and in Pavel Pogrebnyak have a striker with a scoring record of better than a goal every other game. Those sort of ingredients all add up to a promising European campaign.
The unknown quantity in the group are Belarussian champions FC BATE Borisov, to give them their full name. The first team from their nation to make it to this stage, BATE have a side almost entirely made up of domestic talent. Despite having three straight league titles under their belt, they will struggle to make an impact in their group, but who knows? Oh, and they are the side with whom one Alex Hleb started out.
Nick Miller
Missed Part One? Don't fear, come this way.