Ronaldo travels to Old Trafford
Draw decided for Champions Cup quarterfinals
Posted: Wednesday December 16, 1998 10:49 AM
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After battling to a draw with Bayern Munich, Man U will face Inter Milan at home AP |
GENEVA (AP) -- Ronaldo goes to Old Trafford and the two German teams, Bayern Munich and Kaiserslautern, meet each other in the quarterfinals of the European Champions Cup.
Manchester United and Inter Milan, both runners-up in their domestic leagues last season, were paired in Wednesday's draw. The first leg is at Old Trafford March 3, and the second at San Siro two weeks later.
The all-German matchup means that Bayern must get past the club that edged it for the Bundesliga title last season. Right now, Bayern is top and Kaiserslautern third in the standings.
The other quarterfinal pairings have defending titlist and seven-time champion Real Madrid against Dynamo Kiev, a quarterfinalist last season, and Juventus, attempting to make the final for the fourth time in a row, against Greek titlist Olympiakos.
Real Madrid initially drew Inter Milan. But UEFA secretary Gerhard Aigner had already explained that teams who had qualified from the same group in the previous round could not be drawn together. Inter topped its group and Real was second, one of the two best runners-up.
That put Inter back into the pot and, this time, Dynamo Kiev came out, while Inter was drawn against Manchester United in the most eye-catching matchup of the round.
"I'm very happy. Manchester United is a great club," said Inter vice president Gianmaria Visconte. "It will be a fantastic match. We always have admired Manchester United."
Manchester United chief executive Martin Edwards said that facing an Italian team was hard enough yet he relished the opportunity of facing Ronaldo.
"It's a tough draw and it's a great draw in one sense because of Inter Milan's reputation," he said.
"If you are going to win the European Cup you have to be prepared to play the best teams at some stage. Italian teams have proved in recent years that they are among the strongest in Europe, while Inter Milan are a really good side who have arguably the world's best player in Ronaldo."
Kaiserslautern coach Otto Rehhagel, whose team has already lost 4-0 to Bayern in the Bundesliga this season, was unhappy to have drawn the Munich powerhouse again.
"That's the most difficult draw we could have gotten," he said. "Any other club would have been better, Bayern is the strongest team in this competition."
Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld was delighted. "It's a team we can beat and we already did it in the Bundesliga. That's why I think we can hope to reach the semis," he said.
Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz said he was thankful that his team didn't draw Inter again.
"We're very happy that Inter was thrown back into the pot because they're such a difficult team," he said. "But now we have to stay focused on playing Dynamo Kiev if we want to win.
"If we start being too relieved about not playing Inter and thinking it's an easy draw, it would be easy to ruin our chances and all work this far would be wasted."
Dynamo Kiev president Grigory Surkis, whose team was knocked out by Juventus at the same stage last season, said he prefered to face the defending champion later in the competition.
"If you have as your aim to come to the final, the best thing is to play against the title holder in the final round," he said. "But we will try our best."
Juventus vice president Roberto Bettega said his team, which was rated the 7-2 favorite by bookmakers Ladbrokes after the pairings, wouldn't be fooled into thinking it had an easy draw in Greek club Olympiakos.
"We you start thinking who you want to draw, then you're dreaming," the former Juventus striker said. "Then there's reality. The draw gave us Olympiakos and these are the games we must win and we formulate a strategy for this draw. It will be difficult because Olympiakos was first in their group and Greek football is improving."
In the considerably weaker Cup Winners Cup, defending champion Chelsea faces Valerenga of Norway, thus avoiding Italy's Lazio and Spanish league leader Mallorca.
Lazio meets Greek club Panionis and Mallorca visits Varteks of Croatia in the first leg, which is March 4.
The other quarterfinal is Lokomotiv Moscow against Israeli club Maccabi Haifa.
Only three nations have any interest in the UEFA Cup quarterfinals with three Italian, three French and two Spanish clubs going for the title.
Yet all three Italian or French teams or both Spanish clubs could make it to the last four because they managed to avoid each other. UEFA said it made no effort to keep clubs from the same countries apart.
Olympique Marseille hosts Celta Vigo, which is second in the Spanish standings, Bologna welcomes Lyon, Bordeaux receives Parma and AS Roma goes to Atletico Madrid. The matches are March 2 and 16.
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