Challenging clashes await English teams in Champions League

The first legs from the first knock-out round of the 2008-09 Champions League will be played next week. The four English teams will be involved in difficult matches despite the fact that two of them won their respective groups.

The group winners, who play away in the first legs, are Champions League holders Manchester United and Liverpool. Arsenal and Chelsea qualified to the knock-out stage as runners-up in the group phase.

Three of the English quartet will face teams from Italy while Liverpool take on La Liga giants Real Madrid.

Arsenal face Roma, Chelsea duel with Juventus and Manchester United combat Inter in the meeting of 'domestic champions'.

For the third year running, England is represented by four teams at this stage of the competition.

Last year, all English teams survived this round, in the process establishing a competition record of four teams from the same country to advance to the quarter-finals.

The outcomes resulted thus: Liverpool-Inter 2-0, 1-0 (3-0); Olympiakos-Chelsea 0-0, 0-3 (0-3); Arsenal- Milan 0-0, 2-0 (2-0); Lyon-Manchester United 1-1, 0-1 (1-2).

Tournament marksmen: 5 goals − Messi (Barcelona), Gerrard (Liverpool), Klose (Bayern Munich), Benzema (Lyon); 4 goals − Berbatov (Manchester United), Jadson (Shakhtar), Del Piero (Juventus), Lisandro (Porto).

Ferguson vs Mourinho

Current Serie A leaders Inter play Manchester United, the no.1 team in the Premiership at the moment, as Jose Mourinho returns to England to pit his wits against Sir Alex Ferguson.

Before the draw was made, Mourinho remarked he would have liked to be paired with an English side after his remarkable stint at Chelsea.

The first tie will be played at the San Siro, where the Red Devils will be without Serbian defender Nemanja Vidic, suspended.

Mourinho said he has fond memories of his visit to Old Trafford as coach of Porto. The Portuguese side knocked out United on the way to lifting the trophy at the expense of Monaco 3-0.

In the group phase, Inter finished second behind Greek side Panathinaikos. The Italians won two, drew two and lost the same number of matches.

United finished their commitments unbeaten.

On their way to their first Champions League win in 1999, Manchester United saw off Inter in the quarter-finals with a 2-0 home win and an away 1-1 draw.

Ranieri's return

Juventus coach Claudio Ranieri, so much loved for his jovial character during his spell at Stamford Bridge, makes an emotional return to Chelsea, the club he coached from 2000 to 2004. During his stint, he steered the Blues to the last four of the Champions League in 2003-04.

Juventus finished their group phase unbeaten following three wins and three draws. Chelsea lost once, 1-3 to Roma at the Olimpico.

Chelsea were close to winning the Champions League for the first time last year but lost the final against Manchester United in Moscow after a nailbiting penalty shoot-out.

This will be the first encounter between Chelsea and Juventus in Europe.

In the previous seven meetings with Italian sides, Chelsea were on the losing end once, vs Lazio in a second phase group match in 1999-00. After a 0-0 draw in Rome, the Blues lost 2-1 at home.

Benitez back to Bernabeu

Rafa Benitez started his coaching career at Real Madrid but made a name for himself following the honours won when at the helm of Valencia. He is now keen to return to his old whereabouts with his club Liverpool to face Real Madrid.

In the group phase, Real finished second to Juventus with the same number of points but lost twice to the Italians. Liverpool's total of 14 points was their best in a group phase since they started taking part in the tournament.

Liverpool beat Real in the final of the European Cup in 1981 (1-0, Alan Kennedy) in Paris.

That was the only other connection between the two sides. This season, the Reds met Atletico Madrid twice in the group phase, figuring in two 1-1 draws.

Arsenal's fine record

Arsene Wenger's Arsenal have a positive record against Italian teams.

Last year, Arsenal became the first English side to beat Milan in their own backyard (2-0). On Tuesday, they will play at the Emirates Stadium against Roma who finished top of their group ahead of Chelsea. The Gunners lost once (0-2, away at Porto) in the group phase.

The Londoners had met Roma once before in the same competition, earning four points from their group matches with a 3-1 away victory and a 1-1 draw at home.

The Gunners bowed out on a score aggregate or earned fewer points than Italian rivals only once − to Fiorentina in 1999-2000 in a group match in the Champions League when the home tie was played at Wembley.