Defending champion Manchester United will face British rivals Celtic in the group stage of the Champions League.
United will also meet Villarreal and Aalborg in the 32-team phase, with the first round held on September 16-17.
United coach Alex Ferguson was relishing defending the trophy and wants points on the board straight away.
"That is a great challenge," Ferguson said.
"The challenge is to make sure you get 10 points as quick as you can. I think we have the squad for it."
Celtic's Australian striker Scott McDonald was thrilled with drawing a defending champion for the second straight year.
"We always love to draw the champion of Europe as we did last year (with FC Barcelona)," McDonald said. "All of those things add up to good things and get us to the next round again. They're going to be fantastic games."
Despite clinching the English Premier League and Champions League last season for the second time in his career - he guided United to the treble in 1999 - Ferguson does not consider United to be the favourites.
"You can't begin to think you're the favorite when you see teams like Milan, Barcelona, Juventus ... all these great names," Ferguson said.
United chief executive David Gill stresses how the close proximity of opponents will reduce travel time.
"The way the games have fallen means our first game is at home to Villarreal between our trips to Liverpool and Chelsea, which is good," Gill said.
That is not the case for Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger in Group G. His team faces long trips to Turkey, to play Fenerbahce, and to Ukraine, against Dynamo Kiev. Arsenal, the 2006 runner-up, also takes on FC Porto.
"Arsene's main issue will be the travel," Arsenal director Danny Fiszman said.
"Kiev and Fenerbahce are long trips. That is the real issue for us."
United's trip to Villarreal in Group E will revive bad memories of striker Wayne Rooney's sending off there in September 2005 as Ferguson's side failed to progress into the knockout phase.
Chelsea, which lost May's final on penalty kicks to the Red Devils, also has a relatively easy Group E, featuring AS Roma, which hosts May's final at the Stadio Olimpico, Bordeaux and newcomer CFR Cluj.
"Chelsea certainly has a leg up on the other teams in the group, but we have to count on the hard work that we have done in the past few years," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. "We are ready for this challenge."
Liverpool will meet Marseille for a second straight season, and the Reds' Spain star Fernando Torres will return to former club Atletico Madrid. Group D also features PSV Eindhoven.
Juventus has a tough return to the lucrative competition in Group H after a two-year absence. The Italians will have to overcome Real Madrid, UEFA Cup winner Zenit St Petersburg and Belarussian champion BATE Borisov.
