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Final round Liverpool, Roma battle for Champions League quarterfinalsPosted: Monday March 18, 2002 11:43 AM
LONDON (AP) -- Vincenzo Montella and fit-again Argentine star Gabriel Batistuta are likely to team up in attack as AS Roma visits Liverpool on Tuesday with a Champions League quarterfinal place at stake. Montella, who has been Batistuta's understudy for much of the season, has scored six goals in his last two Serie A games with the Argentine star out of the starting lineup. Now coach Fabio Capello might field the two stars together. Capello also has Francesco Totti and Marco Delvecchio to call on. The Italian champion will be up against an impressive Liverpool offense, too. Last in the group with three points to make up, four-time titlist Liverpool needs a victory. The Reds will give a late fitness test to England star Michael Owen to see if he can partner Nicolas Anelka and Emile Heskey, with Finnish star Jari Litmanen as backup. "There will be a late decision on Michael," said assistant manager Phil Thompson. "Michael trained yesterday, he is training today and we will wait to see tomorrow." The game at Anfield is the highlight of the final round of eight group games with four clubs -- eight-time titlist Real Madrid, defending champion Bayern Munich, Manchester United and Deportivo de La Coruna -- already in the last eight. In the same Group B as Liverpool and Roma, Turkey's Galatasaray and Spanish giant Barcelona meet in Istanbul for the other spot. Deportivo has already qualified from Group D, with Arsenal and Bayer Leverkusen chasing the other place. The Gunners go to Juventus, which is already out of contention, while Leverkusen, on the same number of points, visits Coruna. Real Madrid qualified with two games to spare and, with a maximum 15 points from five games, is guaranteed to top Group C. On Wednesday, it visits Panathinaikos, which is chasing the other qualifying spot. The Greek club's rival, third place FC Porto, visits eliminated Sparta Prague. After their 0-0 tie at Old Trafford last week, Manchester United and Bayern Munich both clinched last eight places and, tied on nine points, have to decide who finishes top. United goes to Portuguese champion Boavista, while Munich hosts French titlist Nantes. With so much attacking talent on the field at Anfield, there's a chance of a high-scoring game. Roma only needs a tie but coach Capello insists that won't be on his players' minds. "There will be only one objective, to win," he said. "We must play without ever thinking about a tie." Thompson, still in charge of the team while Gerard Houllier continues his recovery from heart surgery, is happy to have all his players available with the exception of suspended German midfielder Dietmar Hamann and maybe Owen. Owen missed Sunday's 2-1 victory at Middlesbrough, which maintained its league title hopes, to make sure he didn't get a recurrence of his hamstring injuries, while Steven Gerrard played only a few minutes of the game near the end. "We're more than pleased," Thompson said. "It was an extremely tough game and everybody's come through." Barcelona, needing a tie at Galatasaray, goes to Istanbul without Brazilian star Rivaldo, who twisted his left ankle during Saturday's 1-1 tie with Real Madrid. Sliding out of contention in the Spanish league, Barcelona knows that the Champions Cup is its last chance of glory. "It's the competition in which we have the best chance," said midfielder Xavi Hernandez. "We know we have a team that can beat anyone and Galatasaray is no exception." Dutch international Frank de Boer said he was unconcerned about the traditional hostile 'Welcome to Hell' reception from the Galatasaray fans. "Despite what people say it's the 22 players not the crowd who play," De Boer said. "The atmosphere should help to raise our game." There was trouble at the Roma-Galatasaray game last week as riot police broke up a brawl between the two teams after the final whistle. Arsenal is on an amazing roll as it also chases glory in the Premier League and FA Cup. Manager Arsene Wenger puts it down to his team's ability to score standout goals, notably through Dennis Bergkamp, Thierry Henry and Robert Pires. Henry will be available despite a domestic suspension, but Bergkamp won't make the trip to Turin because of his aversion to flying. "We have players who can score great goals and the good thing when you follow Arsenal is that you see great goals," Wenger said. "The fact we have scored in 31 successive games is down to quality but also to the fact that we try to go forward and have a consistent motivation to score goals." Because of the complicated qualifying procedure, Bayer Leverkusen needs a victory over Deportivo to deny Arsenal a quarterfinal place. "It makes no sense to go for a tie in Coruna," said goalkeeper Joerg Butt, who takes the Leverkusen penalties. "Only a win takes us through for sure and I am sure that we can clinch it." The Germans may be helped by the fact that Deportivo, which needs just a point to clinch first place in the group, will rest a lot of players, including top scorer Diego Tristan, who scored three times against Osasuna on Saturday to take his tally for the season to 15. "It could be seven, eight or nine," coach Javier Irureta said. With his team ahead of Valencia on goal difference in the Spanish league, Real Madrid coach Vicente de Bosque will rest several of his front line stars against Panathinaikos. He also did that last week against Sparta Prague and Madrid won 3-0. Manchester United goes to Boavista without three leading players, top scorer Ruud van Nistelrooy, captain Roy Keane and Argentine midfielder Juan Sebastian Veron, who are all injured. Bayern Munich's French defender Willy Sagnol will have arthroscopic surgery on his right knee on Wednesday and misses the game against Nantes while there are doubts about the fitness of midfielder Mehmet Scholl and forward Alexander Zickler.
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