UEFA Champions League will once again prove to be full of excitement & surprises this year

The draw for the group stage of the UEFA Champions League 2012-2013 took place last night. I have always been a massive fan of the World Cup & European Championships....up to this year.

But Euro 2012 simply did not produce the level of excitement & drama anywhere near the levels of high octane drama in the Champions League last year, with the dramatic semi final & final win by Chelsea making last year's competition one of the most exciting & unpredictable of all time.

Last night's draw, as usual, produced a distinct group of death, and the cash & quality rich experience poor Manchester City were caught in the net again. Group D is pairing the 2012 Champions of Spain (Real Madrid), England (Manchester City), Holland (Ajax) & Germany (Dortmund) together in a very tough group.

Real Madrid & Mourinho took care of Barcelona last year by winning La Liga but are desperate to win the CL trophy after falling short in the semi finals last year. Whilst both Manchester City & Dortmund need to perform better than the disappointing group stage exit of last year. Ajax, whilst not the powerhouse they once were, have dealt with their internal problems & have many young talented Dutch players & would surely fancy their chances.

Unlike previous years, this year I will wait until mid September before predicting which teams will succeed. To regular visitors of my blog, my record in the past 3 years stands at above 85%!

There are some early predictions nevertheless: Juventus are back as a force to be reckoned with whilst AC Milan have sold key players & are in real danger of a prolonged decay & elimination in the group stage for the first time in many years (or even first time ever?)

There will also be many exciting encounters to look forward to. For example, there will be once again exciting Anglo German encounters between Manchester City vs Dortmund & Schalke vs Arsenal whilst the 2001 finalists Bayern & Valencia will meet in Group F.

Both Manchester City & Borussia Dortmund must & will be more competitive whilst the favourites will remain the same: Real Madrid, Barcelona, Chelsea, Bayern Munich & Manchester United.

Amongst the favourites Barcelona & Manchester United have arguably landed the easiest groups.

Will the New European Football Season match last year's excitement & drama?

The London Olympics are over! The shear excitement of London 2012 has resulted in a somewhat lower level of anticipation by fans towards the start of the EPL & the rest of the European Leagues.

However, once the season kicks off in the coming days & later in September the Champions League matches commence, the fans support & excitement will kick into full gear. In fact it's what is hard to match is the shear dram & excitement of last season across Europe which will be hard to match:

In the EPL, Manchester United scored 8 goals vs Arsenal early in the season, then fell behind Manchester City, caught them, and finally lost the EPL to their "Money Saturated" rivals in the last few seconds of THE last match of the season. Many other teams entertained &disappointed fans, from brave newcomers Norwich & Swansea & the ever fighters Wigan, to major disappointments Chelsea & Liverpool.

In La Liga Mourinho's Real madrid, led by ever scoring Ronaldo finally got the better of Guardiola's men led by Messi, whilst in Italy Juventus announced their return amongst the best in Europe by winning Serie A undefeated. In Germany Dortmund once again beat Bayern Munich in both league matches as well as the Cup final & claimed the double & in France, an exciting season culminated in the 3rd Champion in 3 years, ie Montpellier.

But once again, Champions League knockout phase & final stole the show in terms of shear drama, spectacle & surprises! Chelsea, playing the "TOTAL ANTI-FOOTBALL" surprised the pundits, as well as Messi & co & Barcelona in the semi final, and Bayern in the final in Munich & finally won the much coveted Champions League trophy.

Sorry Chelsea fans! Although I am a life long Bayern fan & the fact that I was at the stadium & witnessed Bayern's heart breaking penalty shoot out loss to Chelsea, I stand by my ANTI FOOTBALL slogan:

Totally negative defensive tactics against both Barcelona & Bayern, unbelievable luck ie missed penalties by Messi, Robben & in the shootout Schweinsteiger, not to mention a massive two billion dollar money spent in the past decade have finally bought Chelsea the trophy! Congratulations!

Now what for the new season?

In the EPL, I predicted Manchester City as the winner in 2011-2012. This year the battle will once again be between the Manchester Clubs. However, this year I am tipping Manchester United to reclaim their crown. 
Whilst some commentators have already started questioning how Sir Alex is going to shape his team around Rooney & the two major new comers Kagawa & Van Persie, I believe Alex Ferguson has once again proven his genius by buying the two new players. Meanwhile Manchester City are yet to add any player of significance added value to their squad.

Arsenal will not be able to once again lose a star of Van Persie's quality & importance & expect to be anything more than a side player, although Podolski has the potential to fill that gap, from a slightly different position.
Chelsea will feel the absence of their CL Final hero Drogba & whilst they have bought Hazard &  Merin, they will need to land Hulk to have any chance of repeating last year's end of season lucky run.
Liverpool have made a huge strategic error in choosing a young albeit talented coach in Rodgers & will once again struggle in mid table. This once gives Tottenham & Newcastle to challenge for CL positions, although Spurs are in the verge of losing Luka Modric at the moment.
My hot tip for the year is QPR, having just survived the drop, mark Hughes has bought well in the off season & the team is more settled & experienced, although they started their campaign with a disastrous 5-0 loss! I also do not think Swansea will get relegated as many commentators are tipping (they were the 5-0 conquerers of QPR)

Elsewhere in the other major leagues, Expect La Liga to once again be a battle between Real Madrid & Barcelona (Yawn!!). Don't get me wrong! I love La Liga! But I get bored with two horse races & the only European League that is more boring than La Liga in that sense was the SPL (Scotland). Rangers have been forcibly relegated to the 3rd division in the SPL this year & that leaves Spain as the main 2 horse race in Europe. It's simply not fun when the third & fourth teams regularly finish 25-30 points behind Real & Barcelona.

Having said that, Villanova, the new Barcelona coach has a difficult task of out muscling the ever more arrogant Mourinho. Nevertheless, in my opinion, in Jordi Alba Barcelona have acquired THE player of Euro 2012. With David Villa back from injury, I tip Barcelona to reclaim their title whilst Real & Mourinho will be chasing the Champions League crown.

In Germany, the battle once again will be between the young guns of Dortmund & Bayern. Dortmund have lost Kagawa to Manchester United whilst Bayern have reinforced their at times toothless attack by bringing in the ever impressive Pizzaro as well as Mario Manzukic, the 3 time goal scorer in Euro 2012. Both are familiar with Bundesliga. Bayern have also got Shaqiri & Dante & may soon be signing Martinez the Spainish superstar in waiting for a Bundesliga record of 40m Euros.
I tip Bayern to reclaim the Bundesliga crown if they can finally put the heartache of losing the CL final to Chelsea behind them.

In Italy, Milan have lost quite a few influential players & the battle will be between Inter & Juventus & Juventus will win as long as Pirlo & co can sort out the match fixing issues surrounding coach Conte.

In France, despite losing Eden hazard to Chelsea, Lille should be able to reclaim the title which they surrounded to Montpellier last year, whilst Bordeaux, Lyon & Marseille as well as the defending Champions Montpellier will challenge for the honours.

And finally, in the exciting but much less glamourous Leagues of Holland & Portugal, the usual suspects will once again challenge for the honours. In Portugal the two horse race Porto vs Benfica match up is once again up & running as evident in the past two seasons & I tip Benfica to win, based on some of their matches I watched in the CL last year. 

In Holland, after a few lean years PSV should once again challenge for the title. Whilst Ajax will be their fierce rivals, AZ & Twente will be up there whilst Feyenord continue to play second fiddle to the top 4 (Although PSV lost their opening match of the new season 0-2!!)

In Champions League, once again Real Madrid & Barcelona are clear favourites & the usual suspects such as Bayern Munich & Manchester United will fancy their chances.

My tip: Flop: Chelsea
dark Horses: Juventus & Manchester City

All in all, European football leagues more & more need the excitement of Champions League as much as CL needs the various Leagues to prosper. The new season will be no different.