UEFA Super Cup Preview

UEFA Champions League winner FC Barcelona will face UEFA Cup Winner Shaktar Donetsk at the Louis II stadium in Monaco to decide the winner of this year's super cup. This will officialyy flag the start of this year's Champions League season. For FC Barcelona this will be a great oppurtunity to start the season in the right not. They have already won the Spanish Super Cup, and will be looking forward to bag their second official silverware of this season. Pep Guardiola has taken all his available player to Monaco. He has also included four youth players in the squad - Jeffren Suárez, Andreu Fontàs, Marc Muniesa and Jonathan Dos Santos. Andres Iniesta and Marquez has been included in the squad but niether has got green light from the medical staff. This would be an epic match for Chygrynskiy as he will be making his switch to Barca after this match.

Shaktar Donetsk was a very difficult opponent last season. We struggled to win away from home and a weak Barca side went down at home. Barca's recent experience with UEFA super cup was a dreadful one - losing to Sevilla 3-0 in 2006. This time we can hope them to make ammends for the same. Shaktar will play a very physical style of game, a style which Barca is least comfortable with. But still we can count on our team to win this one. Valdes should start at goal. The defense ideally will be made up of Alves, Puyol, Pique and Abidal. The midfield should have Keita, Xavi and Toure. The forward line-up is a very easy prediction - Henry, Ibra and Messi.

My Prediction : Barca - 3, Shaktar - 1

FC Barcelona and Inter in Same Group

FC Barcelona has been drawn alongside Inter Milan, the champions of Italy in the Group F of this season's Champions league. The Ukranian club FC Dynamo Kyiv and the Russian club FC Rubin Kazan completes the group. Eventhough Inter would be a difficult opponent, Barca looks to have found a place in a relatively easy group for next stage qualification. FC Barcelona will open their title defense at Inter Milan on 16th September. This will be the first time Inter and Barca square off after the Ibra-eto swap. FC Barcelona's first home match is against Dynamo Kiev on 29th September. This season draw were expected to churn out some tough groups; but on the final analysis I didn't see any group which can be termed as "Group Of Death". Group E featuring Liverpool, Lyon and Fiorentina is a tough group; but still Lyon and Liverpool ar favourite to go through. Real Madrid has been paired with AC Milan in Group C.

UEFA also announced the UEFA Club Awards of last season. Lionel Messi was elected as the UEFA Club player of the year. He also got the UEFA Club Forward of the Year. Xavi received the UEFA Club midfielder of the year award. Terry and Van Der Saar were elected as best defender and Goalkeeper respectively.

FC Barcelona Seeded Top In Champions League Draw

FC Barcelona as expected has been seeded at the top in the Champions league Draw pot. FC Barcelona is seeded top in the first pot which features Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchetser United, AC Milan, Arsenal, Sevilla and Bayern Munich. The second pot features Lyon, Inter, Real Madrid, CSKA Moscow, FC Porto, AZ Alkmaar, Juventus and Rangers. The pot 3 has the likes of Olympiakos, Marseille, Dinamo Kiev, VFB Stuttgart, Fiorentina, A. Madrid, Bordeux and Beskitas. And finally the final pot has Wolfsburg, Standard Liege, Maccabi Haifa, FC Zurich, Rubin Kazan, Unirea Urziceni, Apoel Nicosia and Debrecen. The presence of Fiorentina, A.Madrid and Stuttgart in Pot 3 and Wolfsburg in pot 4 seriously enhances the chance of having a really bad Group of Death. We have to keep our fingers crossed with that. But the presence of four English teams in Pot 1 enhances their chance of featuring in a so called Group of death - how about Chelsea, Inter, A.Madrid and Wolfsburg in the same group.

Meanwhile FC Barcelona will be playing Shaktar at the UEFA Super Cup finale in Monaco tomorrow. All rumours indicate that Iniesta will be back for this tie. Another news doing the round is the almost signing of Dmytro Chygrynskiy from Shaktar to Barca. It looks certain now but he can only play for us in Spain. Will write more on this once the deal is complete, which should be very soon. Another set of rumours is about the new contract which is ready for Messi - the wumours states that Messi will be earning close to 10 million Euros per year and his buy-out clause will be increased to 300 million. It is yet to be seen whether the likes of Iniesta and Xai will get new contracts in line with the one provided with Messi.