Fabulous four eye Europe's biggest silver pot

Interest in the Champions League always grows significantly after the completion of the group stage and the line-up for the first round of the knockout phase is known. These ties will be played next week.

English clubs Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool and Manchester United all made progress after finishing on top of their respective groups for the first time since the tournament was revamped by UEFA.

For the second year running, the Scots have Celtic as a representative of their own. It is also a first that five British sides qualified from the group stage.

The Champions League could be in for some changes next year if new UEFA boss Michel Platini goes on with his vow of keeping maximum entries to leading nations to three instead of four.

Most of these clubs are in the G14 group and they know well that without their presence the competition could become a farce. No doubt, the fans would love to watch the big ones clashing against each other.

England, Italy and Spain have already sounded their disagreements. One wonders what would happen now that the talk of a 'Super League' has resurfaced after Platini came up with his new format.

The Frenchman must thank FIFA president Sepp Blatter for gaining those few extra votes that eventually edged out former president Lennart Johansson.

Meanwhile, the same format will be retained for next season as well.

The scorers

These tallies do not include qualifiers to the group phase.

5 Drogba (Chelsea).
4 Crouch (Liverpool); Saha (Manchester United).
3 Garcia (Liverpool).
2 Fowler, Gerrard (Liverpool).
1 Baptista, Eboue, Gilberto, Henry, Hleb, Rosicky, Van Persie (Arsenal); Ballack, Essien, Lampard, Shevchenko, Wright-Phillips (Chelsea); Giggs, O'Shea, Richardson, Scholes, Solskjaer, Vidic (Manchester United).

Fiery fixture

The best match is the one between the last two winners of the competition - Liverpool and Barcelona.

Barcelona's connection with English clubs has persisted since 2004 and this will go on for the second time this season.

2004-05: Last 16 - Chelsea oust Barcelona 5-4 on aggregate.

2005-06: Last 16 - Barcelona beat Chelsea 3-2 over two legs.

2006-07: In the group phase, Chelsea earned four points with a home win and an away draw. Barcelona went through as runners-up, however. They will be meeting Liverpool at the Nou Camp in the first leg next Wednesday.

On past commitments, Barca have never defeated or even scored against Liverpool in the three matches at the Nou Camp (Liverpool result first):

1975-76 (UEFA Cup SF) Away 1-0, Home 1-1 (2-1).

2000-01 (UEFA Cup SF) Away 0-0, Home 1-0 (1-0).

2001-02 (Champions League, second group stage) Home 1-3, Away 0-0 (1 point).

While Liverpool won Group C, the holders only qualified for the last 16 after they toppled Werder Bremen in their last match of Group A.

Also next Wednesday, Porto will square up to Chelsea at the Estadio do Dragao. Porto had won the competition under coach Jose Mourinho in 2004, when he later left his fatherland to coach in London.

The following season the sides met in the Champions League group phase of 2004-05. Each club won three points by winning their home encounter - Chelsea 3-1, Porto 2-1.

From the squad members involved in those two games, seven have left Stamford Bridge. These are: Gallas, Smertin, Gudjohnsen, Kezman, Duff, Tiago and Parker.

The scorers at the Bridge were Smertin, Drogba and Terry while Duff netted at Porto. Chelsea went down to Liverpool in the semi-finals, as Porto's elimination came earlier against Inter in the first round.

Defeated finalists

Arsenal and Manchester United play on Tuesday.

The Gunners went all the way to the final last year, losing 1-2 to Barcelona in Paris. In the final, Jens Lehmann became the first goalkeeper to be dismissed in the 51-year history of the competition.

Throughout this season's tournament, Arsene Wenger admitted that his players were nervous. Indeed, it was only in the last game that they qualified. They topped Group G because of a better head-to-head record against Porto.

Arsenal will travel to the Philips Stadium to play PSV, a match that Wenger described as a tough confrontation for the way the Dutch side have made waves in the last competitions, even reaching the semi-finals.

This will be the first meeting between the two sides in the knockout phase, having met twice before in the group stage.

On both occasions, in 2002-03 and two years later, the Londoners held the upperhand by gaining four points for their win and a draw.

In their first clash, Brazilian Gilberto scored the fastest goal in Champions League history - after 20.07 seconds in Arsenal's 4-0 triumph in Eindhoven.

Alex Ferguson has warned French side Lille that the United side they will face in the Last 16 is a tougher proposition to last term.

At Old Trafford, the French held on to a 0-0 draw and at the Stade de France United lost 0-1. United suffered a shock exit from the 2005/06 competition. It was the first time in ten years that they had failed to go through to the KO stage.

Lille have reached the KO phase for the first time in their history. Last year, they failed to make progress as they finished third behind Benfica and Villarreal.

The sides had also met in 2001-02 with United earning four points after a 1-0 win at Old Trafford and a 1-1 away draw.

Ryan Giggs, who scored his first European goal of the season in United's triumph over Benfica, became the only player in Champions League history to score in 12 successive seasons.

Scottish side Celtic are on next Tuesday in their home duel with Milan, the 2003 winners.

In Italy, Milan will host Celtic at the San Siro after adequate security measures were put in place.

Celtic are the first British winners of the European Cup in 1967, beating Milan's neighbours Inter.

Celtic met Milan twice before, going down 0-1 on aggregate in the European Cup QFs in 1969 and gaining a point from the group phase matches of 2005.