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Champions League battle lines drawn

Chelsea to face Milan; German, Dutch teams matched up

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Posted: Thursday August 26, 1999 02:54 PM

Didier Deschamps will anchor a talented Chelsea lineup as the club makes its first appearance in the Champions League. Clive Brunskill/Allsport

MONTE CARLO, Monaco (AP) -- Gianliuca Vialli's Chelsea will face AC Milan in the opening group phase of the Champions League, while defending champion Manchester United will meet one of Eric Cantona's old clubs, Olympique Marseille.

The draw for the expanded competition in which 32 of Europe's top clubs have been put into eight groups gave seven-time titlist Real Madrid a comparatively easy route to the second stage and set up two potentially explosive Germany vs. Netherlands confrontations -- Borussia Dortmund against Feyenoord and Bayern Munich against PSV Eindhoven.

Chelsea, which qualified for the last 32 by beating Latvia's Skonto Riga over two legs, is making its first appearance 44 years late. It should have taken part in the inaugural 1956 competition but was advised to withdraw by the English league, which believed the event had no future.

Now Vialli, who won a Champions League medal with Juventus in 1996, will face Milan, Hertha Berlin and Turkey's Galatasaray. Vialli's star-studded team, which also includes Gianfranco Zola and French World Cup winners Marcel Desailly, Didier Deschamps and Frank Leboeuf, welcomes the Italian league champion to Stamford Bridge first game up on Sept. 15.

Manchester United begins its defense against Croatia Zagreb, which will field many of the Croatian national team that placed third in the World Cup last year. Austria's Sturm Graz is the fourth team in the group, but the meetings with Marseille Sept. 29 and Oct. 19 appear the most eyecatching.

“It's an interesting draw because we have never played any of the three teams in a competition before,” said United secretary Ken Ramsden. “It's new territory for us, but Alex Ferguson will make sure we know all about them before we start.”

Real Madrid is grouped with FC Porto, which has slumped since its Champions Cup triumph of 1987, Olympiakos of Greece and Norway's Molde.

The Spanish soccer giant, which won the last of its record seven titles two seasons ago, performed poorly last season and must overcome internal squabbles if it is to mount a new challenge. But it should have the quality to make the last 16.

UEFA, which seeded the 32 teams into four groupings based on previous results, painstakingly made sure that no two clubs from the same country wound up in the same group. But the draw produced four games that could lead to serious violence among the fans.

When the competition kicks off Sept. 14, Borussia Dortmund will go to Rotterdam to face Feyenoord and, the next day, Bayern Munich hosts PSV Eindhoven.

Matches between clubs from neighbors Germany and the Netherlands frequently lead to trouble, and the matches are reversed Oct. 26 and 27.

With Dortmund and Feyenoord in Group C are Portugal's Boavista and Norway's Rosenborg. Joining Bayern Munich an Eindhoven in Group F will be Glasgow Rangers and Valencia.

“Once again, it's the toughest group,” said Bayern president Franz Beckanbauer, whose team finished runner up to Manchester United last season after conceding two goals in the last two minutes. “Last year it was the same. We seem to be specialists for the 'group of death.’”

Alberto Zaccheroni, who led AC Milan to the Italian title last season, agreed.

“It seems to me that the most difficult draw is the one that includes Bayern Munich, PSV Eindhoven, Valencia and Glasgow Rangers,” Zaccheroni said. “Our draw, like that of Fiorentina, is definitely very demanding, while Real Madrid's draw, on paper, seems the least difficult.”

Rangers' Dutch coach, Dick Advocaat, singled out Bayern as the team to beat.

“Obviously apart from being the number one seed in the group, Bayern Munich will be the favorites,” he said. “Only a few months ago they were within a couple of minutes of becoming European champions when they lost two very late goals to Manchester United.”

The fourth German team in the competition is Bayer Leverkusen in Group A with Lazio, Maribor of Slovenia and last season's semifinalist, Dynamo Kiev.

Spanish titlist Barcelona is in a colorful group B with Fiorentina, Arsenal and Sweden's AIK, while Spartak Moscow, Sparta Prague, Bordeaux and Dutch club Willem II make up Group G.

“It's tougher than last year,” said Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger, who was hugely disappointed that his team didn't perform well last season and failed to reach the quarterfinal.

“But we have learned from last year in terms of concentration, discipline and the strength of the squad.”

The top two in each group go through to the last 16 which also is played in a group format -- four groups of four -- before competition finally reverts to knockout from the quarterfinal.

 

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