Chelsea have been handed a relatively kind draw as the last year’s Europa League winners face German side Schalke, Swiss champions FC Basel and Romanian Champions Steaua Bucharest.
Chelsea were the side from the Pot 1 to be given Group E in the draw that took place today.
Schalke are the Pot 2 side that made it to the group stages after finishing fourth in the Bundesliga last season. The teams from the third and fourth Pot are the sides Chelsea faced last season on our way to winning the Europa League, teams Chelsea would know plenty about.
Steaua were beaten at home 3-1 after the Romanian Champions had beaten Chelsea at their home turf.
FC Basel were the Semi Finalists in the Europa League last season and were beaten by Chelsea 5-2 on aggregate after they overcame Spurs in the quarters.
Chelsea got the easiest draw compared to the other English sides, Surely with Jose back the passage to the last 16 should be secured and anything less would be a massive disappointment.
Below is the complete draw:
Group A
Manchester United
Shakhtar Donetsk
Bayer Leverkusen
Real Sociedad
Group B
Real Madrid
Juventus
Galatasaray
FC Copenhagen
Group C
Benfica
Paris St-Germain
Olympiacos
Anderlecht
Group D
Bayern Munich
CSKA Moscow
Manchester City
Viktoria Plzen
Group E
Chelsea FC
Schalke
FC Basel
Steaua Bucharest
Group F
Arsenal
Marseille
Borussia Dortmund
Napoli
Group G
Porto
Atletico Madrid
Zenit St Petersburg
Austria Vienna
Group H
Barcelona
AC Milan
Ajax
Celtic
I was hoping for a tougher group which in my opinion would help build our young team’s confidence…
IMO,arsenal are as good as out…