This newsitem has been supplied by PSV.nl
PSV have been included in seeding Pot 2 for the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League group stage draw which will take place at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco tonight from 18.00CET. Sixteen teams gained automatic entry to the competition and sixteen more teams came through the third qualifying round on Tuesday and Wednesday.
FC Twente
FC Twente failed to reach the group stage after they were beaten 4-0 by Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium in London. Steve McLaren's team, who suffered a 2-0 defeat in their first leg at home, will be in the hat when the draw for the UEFA Cup first knockout round takes place. PSV are the the only Dutch club that will compete in the UEFA Champions League tournament, for the third consecutive season. PSV did not progress from the Group stage last season, but qualified for the quarter-finals in the 2005/06 and 2006/07 campaigns. PSV reached the UEFA Cup quarter-finals last season.
Unfamiliar teams
Pot 4 features some clubs that are rather unfamiliar to PSV. Aalborg FC from Denmark, with the former PSV players Kasper Bogelund and Michael Jakobsen, succeeded in qualifying for the Group stage. CFR 1907 Cluj, from Rumania, Anorthosis Famagusta FC from Cyprus and FC BATE Borisov from Belarus will make their debut in the group stage. PSV may very well be drawn against an English club, as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool have all been included in Pot 1. Three of those English clubs reached the semi-finals last season. Manchester United won the cup after beating Chelsea on penalties.
Pot 1: Manchester United, Chelsea FC, Liverpool FC, FC Barcelona, Arsenal FC, Olympique Lyon, Internazionale FC and Real Madrid.
Pot 2: FC Bayern München, PSV, Villareal CF, AS Roma, FC Porto, Werder Bremen, Sporting Clube de Portugal and Juventus.
Pot 3: Olympique Marseille, FC Zenit St. Petersburg, Steaua Boekarest, Panathinaikos FC, FC Girondins de Bordeaux, Celtic FC, FC Basel and Fenerbahçe SK.
Pot 4: FC Shaktar Donetsk, ACF Fiorentina, Atlético Madrid, FC Dynamo Kiev, CFR 1907 Cluj, Aalborg BK, Anorthosis Famagusta FC and FC BATE Borisov.
