2010/11 Champions League -- Group G Preview

Group G of this season's Champions League has been called "The Group of Death." This group is the only group in which there are no easy outs; all four teams are rather solid. Without further ado, let's take a look at this group of death.

1. AC Milan. There is no possible way to game plan against AC Milan's attack. With Andrea Pirlo, Ronaldinho, Robinho, Filippo Inzaghi, Alexandre Pato, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, AC Milan should be able to butcher any defense they face.

2. Real Madrid. As with every season, Real Madrid's roster looks like an All-Star team: GK Iker Casillas, defenders Ricardo Carvalho and Sergio Ramos, midfielders Lassana Diarra, Xabi Alonso, World Cup 2010 sensation Mesut Ozil, and Sami Khedira, and attackers Christiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, and Gonzalo Higuain. Even though they have all of these all-star players along with Jose Mourinho as coach, I pick them to be second because they do not have role players that do the dirty work on the team and because first-year clubs coached by Mourinho are a little shaky in Group Stage Play in the past. In their first two La Liga matches, Real has only scored one goal. Their surprising lack of scoring at the start of the season will hurt them in this group.

3. AFC Ajax. Ajax is not a really deep team, but they have some players that will make every game that they play very interesting. In goal is GK Maarten Stekelenburg. He placed himself into the upper echelon of goalkeepers throughout the world with his stellar play in the World Cup for second place Holland. The midfield is controlled by Siem de Jong and Demy de Zeeuw. The attack of Ajax is absolutely outstanding with Mounir El Hamdaoui and World Cup standout for fourth place Uruguay, Luis Suarez (handball notwithstanding, if you are not cheating, then you are not trying). The problem in guarding Suarez is that he is constantly moving for the entire 90 minutes. With their goalkeeping and their scoring attack, Ajax will probably pull a couple of shockers in this group.

4. AJ Auxerre. What makes Auxerre so intriguing is that at times, they will play with three or all four of their attackers on the pitch at the same time. They know that their defense sucks, so they just try to outscore teams with the attacking quartet of Valter Birsa, Anthony Le Tallec, Roy Contout, and Dennis Oliech.

If you can, attempt to watch as many games from this group as possible because anything can happen.