Champions League 2012-13: The Domestic Leagues Start This Weekend

After a beautiful Euro 2012 and great Olympic Games sport fans will only demand high quality tournaments. Here we go - the group stage of the biggest club tournament on Earth called Champions League is not too far. 22 of the overall 32 participants are already known. The last 10 clubs will join them by the end of August.

We need to get ready for this amazing tournament as well. I will try to follow up the teams participating in Champions League until their exit at any stage. From time to time I will prepare articles about teams showing anything extraordinary either in their domestic leagues or in the Champions League.

But for now there is not much to say, but to get acquainted to the list of clubs ready to enter this glorious tournament.   

Ajax from Netherlands: The Dutch Eredivisie starts this weekend with Ajax starting to defend their title on the 12^th of August with a home game against AZ Alkmaar. Ajax just lost the match for the Dutch Supercup to PSV with a score of 2-4.  

Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United from England: The Premier League starts on the 18^th of August. The following matches will be played on the first day of the League: Arsenal-Sunderland, Wigan-Chelsea, Manchester City-Southampton, and Everton-Manchester United. The season will officially start with the FA Community Shield between Manchester City and Chelsea on the 12^th of August.

Barcelona, Real Madrid and Valencia from Spain: The season will start on the 19^th of August before a couple of El Classicos on the 23th and 30^th of August will decide the Spanish Super Copa winner. Real Madrid and Valencia will meet each other in the opening day, while Barcelona will host Real Sociedad.

Bayern, Borussia Dortmund and Schalke 04 from Germany: Bayern and Borussia will fight for the German SuperCup this Sunday and on the 24^th of August the first Bundesliga match will be played. On this day Borussia will host Werder Bremen. The opening matches of the other Champions League participants are the following: Greuther Furth-Bayern, Hannover-Schalke 04.

Benfica and Porto from Portugal: Porto will play in the Portuguese Super Cup match on the 11^th of August, while the Super Liga will kick off next week. Porto will be hosted by Gil Vicente and Benfica will play against Sporting Braga.

Galatasaray from Turkey: Galatasaray and another possible participant of Champions League, Fenerbahce, will start the Turkish season on the 11^th of August with a match for the Super Cup. A week later the Super Lig will begin, where Galatasaray will play against Kasimpasa.

Juventus and Milan from Italy: Traditional Supercup match in Italy will take place on the Chinese soil between Juventus and Napoli on the 11^th of August. The southern team was the only one to defeat the defending champions during the whole season of 2011-2012. That was the final match for the Italian Cup. In Serie A Juventus will play its first match on the 24^th of August, where Parma will be a guest at Juventus Stadium. Milan will host Sampdoria.

Montpellier and PSG from France: The French Champions already lost their first possibility to win a trophy this year. The Trophee des Champions went to Lyon. And the League 1 match will already take place on Friday, 10^th of August. Montpellier will host Toulouse. PSG will play against Lorient on Saturday.

Nordsjælland from Denmark: The champions of Denmark have already played four games this season: Horsens-FCN 0- 4, Midtjylland-FCN 3-1, FCN-Odence 1-1 and AaB-FCN 1-1. They are sharing 7-9^th places in the Superliga, where only 12 teams participate. They will meet Silkeborg on Saturday.  

Olympiacos from Greece: The Greek Super League will start on the 26^th of August. Olympiacos will play against Veroia.

Shakhtar Donetsk from Ukraine: The Ukrainian champions have had a great season so far, clinching four victories in their starting four matches of the Ukrainian Vyscha Liga. They have scored 14 and conceded 1. Their next opponent this Sunday will be Vorskla. It is worth to mention that the Donetsk team won the match for the Super Cup, too.

Zenit from Russia: Starting the season with a loss to Rubin for the Russian Super Cup, the champions from St. Petersburg have been exceptional in the Russian Premier Liga. They have already earned 9 points in their starting 3 matches. They will meet the vice-champions Spartak on Saturday.

The last two teams will be the focus for the next article. But for now – enjoy lots of sports during in the weekend.