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Champion`s League Draw



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Champion`s League Draw
forwardone Offline
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Champion`s League Draw

NYON, Switzerland (AP) -- FC Barcelona and Liverpool, the last two champions of Europe, were drawn against each other Friday for the first knockout round of the Champions League.

Defending champion Barcelona will play the first leg at home and travel to five-time winner Liverpool for the second leg two weeks later.

Jose Mourinho will lead his Chelsea team against FC Porto, the team he coached to the title three seasons ago, while record nine-time champion Real Madrid faces four-time winner Bayern Munich.

AC Milan, champion six times, must get past Celtic, which won the title in 1967.

The other pairings: PSV Eindhoven vs. Arsenal; Lille vs. Manchester United; AS Roma vs. Lyon; Inter Milan vs. Valencia.

The first legs are Feb. 20-21, with the second March 6-7. The final is May 23 in Athens.

Winners of the group stages were kept apart from runners-up in Friday's draw, and no two teams from the same group or country could face each other. The group winners have a slight advantage of playing the second legs at home.

Liverpool won its fifth title in Istanbul in 2005, coming from 3-0 down at halftime to tie 3-3 with AC Milan and then win a penalty shootout.

Last season, Barcelona rallied to beat Arsenal 2-1 in Paris. While Liverpool is fourth in the Premier League, 16 points behind Manchester United, Barcelona is top of the Spanish league and chasing a third straight title.

Barcelona has played Chelsea three seasons in a row and faces an English team yet again.

"(Liverpool) is a team I like -- the past two champions of the competition will face each other and it will be an extraordinary tie," Barcelona president Joan Laporta said. "They are a very strong rival which plays a very physical style of football and they have players we know well.

"We don't want to lose the title, we want to remain the team to beat."

Mourinho led Porto to a 3-0 victory over AS Monaco in the 2004 final and then moved to Chelsea, immediately leading it to its first English league title in 50 years. He won the Premier League again last season but has since failed in the Champions League, being knocked out by Liverpool and Barcelona.

"It is all about Jose and Porto," Chelsea secretary David Barnard said. "He has a lot of respect from Portuguese people, because he is the person who brought the Champions League to them. We have players we signed from Porto, so we know a little about them. But we will still have to give them a lot of respect, because any team that qualifies for this stage needs that."

Real Madrid has failed to win a major title for three seasons and now has a tough task to reach the last eight of the Champions League. While Madrid hasn't won European soccer's biggest title since 2002, Bayern has been waiting since a 2001 penalty shootout victory over Valencia.

Madrid knocked out Bayern the last two times they met -- in the quarterfinals in 2002 and in the round of 16 in 2004.

"(Bayern) are a great team, a very competitive one, but we think we can make it to the quarterfinals," said Real Madrid sports director Predrag Mijatovic, who scored Madrid's winner in the 1998 Champions League final 1-0 victory over Juventus. "Bayern finished first and we have to respect them, though on paper I think we are the favorites."

Milan should be pleased to face Celtic, which is one of the outsiders of the 16 without a European triumph since its 1967 victory over Inter Milan in Lisbon. The Hoops reached the UEFA Cup final in 2003 and lost to Porto.

"It's always beautiful to play against British teams because of the history, the passion and the fair play," AC Milan director Umberto Gandini said. "Celtic is doing well in its own championship and had success against Manchester United in the group stage, which is no mean feat."

English league leader Manchester United has the chance to make up for last season's disappointing exit from the group stage, when it drew 0-0 at home to Lille and lost 1-0 away. United finished last in the group and was knocked out.

"We had a bad experience last year but this is a different United team," said Red Devils manager Alex Ferguson. "It's an emerging team, which is getting better all the time. We're really looking forward to the tie.

"To get to this stage is fantastic and we have improved so much since last year. I am sure they will be two great games. We know they will be difficult, but that's what the Champions League at this stage is all about."

The last of Inter Milan's two European titles came in 1965. It faces Valencia, runner up in 2000 and 2001.

Arsenal has avoided the strongest teams, a boon since it is shaky this season and in sixth place in the Premier League, 18 points behind United.

Lyon is chasing a record sixth straight French title and looks a strong candidate for a first European success, but must get past 1984 runner-up Roma. The Italian club finished fifth in Serie A last season but was promoted to second because Juventus, AC Milan and Fiorentina were all punished over a match-fixing scandal.

Associated Press
12-15-2006 02:30 PM
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