Champions League Draw 2011: Instant Reaction and Analysis of Draw

All eyes were cast upon Monte Carlo this afternoon as the 2011 Champions League Draw was announced.

For those who haven't gotten a chance to take a look at the groups, here are a list of all eight groups:

Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Bayern Munich	Inter Milan	Manchester United	Real Madrid
Villarreal	CSKA Moscow	Benfica	Lyon
Manchester City	Lille	Basel	Ajax
Napoli	Trabzonspur	Otelul Galati	Dinamo Zagreb

Group E	Group F	Group G	Group H
Chelsea	Arsenal	Porto	Barcelona
Valencia	Marseille	Shakhtar Donetsk	AC Milan
Bayer Leverkusen	Olympiakos	Zenit St. Petersburg	BATE
Genk	Borussia Dortmund	APOEL	Viktoria Plzen

Some of the groups are relatively easy while Groups A and F look to be the groups of death. The group that landed Manchester City as the No. 3 team was destined to be the group of death, and unfortunately for Villarreal and Bayern Munich, things just got a bit tougher.

While Bayern Munich is still the clear favorite to come out of the group, Villarreal and Manchester City could be in hot competition for the No. 2 spot.

2011 Europa League champion Porto came away with a group that looks easy on the surface, but could be more difficult than many expect. Shakhtar Donetsk could easily upend Porto as the top team in the group, much like they did to Arsenal last season.

Barcelona got a difficult draw with AC Milan, but they should have no problem knocking off BATE or Viktoria Plzen and should still advance as the No. 1 seed out of the group.

Predicting the top two teams for each group:

Group A: Bayern Munich, Manchester City
Group B: CSKA Moscow, Inter Milan
Group C: Manchester United, Basel
Group D: Real Madrid, Ajax
Group E: Chelsea, Valencia
Group F: Marseille, Arsenal
Group G: Shakhtar Donetsk, Porto
Group H: Barcelona, AC Milan