The Draws for both the Champions League and Europa League were completed this week. For the first time since a long time ago there are no Scottish football teams in either draw and there is an Irish team in the Europa League groups for the first time.

Champions League Draw
I'm not going into every group in detail but here is the draw and a few thoughts on each one.

Group A has Manchester City with a tough-ish draw with Bayern Munich, Villarreal and Napoli. I expect City to comfortably make it through in second place behind Munich. Most of the squad has some European experience and it would be a failure of massive proportions to fail to get out of that group, I just can't see that happening.

Group B Is Inter, CSKA Moscow, Lille and Trabsonspor. Inter and CSKA will go through with only Lille offering a potential upset.

Group C In Manchester United group with Benfica, Basle and Otelul Galati. I don't see any troubles for United progressing from this one. The New Romanian club will be interesting to see as I know nothing much about them.

Group D pits Real Madrid with Lyon for the third straight year as well as Ajax and Dinamo Zagreb. While Madrid and Lyon should progress from here both Ajaz and Zagreb might spring a surprise or two.

Group E has Chelsea, Valencia, Leverkusen and Genk. Again easy to predict Chelsea and Valencia will progress.

Group F has Arsenal, Marseille, Olympiakos and Borussia Dortmund. This is perhaps the most open of all of the groups for winner. I expect Arsenal to go through but if they don't sign anyone before Wednesday it will be tough.

Group G has  Porto, Shaktar Donetsk, Zenit St petersburg and APOEL FC.  Porto will win the group despite the long travelling and Shaktar will finish runners up but only just from Zenit.

Group H has the reigning champions and the darlings  of European football in Barcelona who are pitted against AC Milan who will finish second and Bat Borisov as well as Viktoria Plzen from the Czech Republic.

Europa League
There are too many groups to go into full detail of them all in the Europa League but i have added a few thoughts on the English teams groups and i have added a Star next to the two football clubs i think will progress.
Group A
*Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
*FC Rubin Kazan (RUS)
PAOK FC (GRE)
Shamrock Rovers FC (IRL)
Interesting for Spurs to get the only Irish club to make it this far and the short trip to Ireland will offset the two very long journeys they have.
Group B
*FC København (DEN)
*R. Standard de Liège (BEL)
Hannover 96 (GER)
FC Vorskla Poltava (UKR)
Group C
*PSV Eindhoven (NED)
*Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
FC Rapid Bucuresti (ROU)
Legia Warszawa (POL)
Group D
*Sporting Clube de Portugal (POR)
*S.S. Lazio (ITA)
FC Zürich (SUI)
FC Vaslui (ROU)
Group E
*FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR)
*Besiktas (TUR)
Stoke City FC (ENG)
Maccabi Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
It's going to be tough for Stoke to get through this group and lots of travelling will no doubt harm their Premier league form.
Group F
 *Paris Saint-Germain FC (FRA)
*Athletic Club (ESP)
FC Salzburg (AUT)
šK Slovan Bratislava (SVK)
Group G
 *AZ Alkmaar (NED)
FC Metalist Kharkiv (UKR)
*FK Austria Wien (AUT)
Malmö FF (SWE)
Group H
 *SC Braga (POR)
*Club Brugge KV (BEL)
Birmingham City FC (ENG)
NK Maribor (SVN)
It will be a strange season for Birmingham playing in the Championship and also in Europe. Lets hope they give a better showing than Milwall did a few years ago
Group I
 *Club Atlético de Madrid (ESP)
*Udinese Calcio (ITA)
Stade Rennais FC (FRA)
FC Sion (SUI)
Group J
*FC Schalke 04 (GER)
FC Steaua Bucuresti (ROU)
*Maccabi Haifa FC (ISR)
AEK Larnaca FC (CYP)
Group K
*FC Twente (NED)
*Fulham FC (ENG)
Odense BK (DEN)
Wisla Kraków (POL)
I expect Fulham to progress however at what cost to their Premier league form.
Group L
*RSC Anderlecht (BEL)
AEK Athens FC (GRE)
*FC Lokomotiv Moskva (RUS)
SK Sturm Graz (AUT)

If you missed part 1 read it here: http://thenewhut.com/pg/news/view/football/this-week-in-football-part-1-transfer-round-up