Defending champions Manchester United take on Italian giants Inter Milan tonight amid a gruelling week of Champions League action.
Wherever you look this week in the Champions League, be it Madrid, Milan or London, intrigue, personality clashes and rarity value abound as the 16 survivors in the continent’s elite competition set their sights on Rome.
An equally rare fixture takes place in Milan’s San Siro 24 hours earlier when holders Manchester United face Serie A leaders Inter Milan in the first leg of a tie that has been eagerly awaited since the draw was made. It is 10 years since the sides last met, since when Alex Ferguson has continued churning out silverware at Old Trafford and Inter have re-established themselves as the leading force in Italian football.
A few managers have come and gone at Inter since that 1999 clash won by United but the presence of Jose Mourinho, the latest in the hotseat, means a rivalry that once illuminated English football is set to be rekindled. Mourinho, in trademark style, has already played down the significance of the game, but Ferguson knows all too well that the Portuguese will possibly prove his most dangerous adversary in attempting to retain the title.
After all, statistics show Mourinho, a Champions League winner with Porto, has got the better of Ferguson most of the time — winning six, drawing five and losing one of their 12 meetings.
Favourites Barcelona, who suffered a rare blip at the weekend in Spain when they lost to Espanyol, travel to French leaders Lyon who have reached the last 16 for the fifth successive season. Arsenal’s home tie against Roma on Tuesday adds to the Anglo-Italian theme of the week as Arsene Wenger tries to remedy his side’s goal famine that has resulted in three consecutive 0-0 draws in the league.
On Wednesday, Real Madrid host Liverpool in the Spanish capital in the first competitive meeting of two of Europe’s powerhouse clubs since the 1981 final.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez will view the tie as a welcome break from the depressing realisation that his side’s chances of winning the English title are vanishing rapidly in a cloud of dust kicked up by a rampant Manchester United.
He will be crossing his fingers that midfield general Steven Gerrard, rated as 50-50 on Sunday, will have recovered from a hamstring injury in time to face a side who warmed up with a 6-1 thrashing of Real Betis on Saturday. “We will see after training tomorrow and then we’ll decide with him and the doctor,” Benitez said. “He’s close. The decision is not easy but he’s improving.”
Claudio Ranieri, the man who was axed to make way for Mourinho’s glittering reign at Stamford Bridge, gets the chance to remind Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich of his qualities when Juventus travel to London on Wednesday for what surprisingly is the first ever meeting between the clubs.
It will also mark the return to the competition of Dutch master Guus Hiddink, the man who steered PSV Eindhoven to the European crown in 1988. “It’s a beautiful road but a very difficult road,” Hiddink, Chelsea’s coach until the end of the season after the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari, told the club’s website. “There is always hunger to see what you can do on this difficult path.”
Bayern Munich, the sole German survivors, face Sporting Lisbon, one of two Portuguese sides left along with Porto who face Atletico Madrid. Villarreal complete the quartet of Spanish clubs in the first knockout round on Wednesday when they host Greek outsiders Panathinaikos.
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