UEFA CHAMPIONS NEWS

Jose Mourinho stands in rival Sir Alex Ferguson's way once again

Just as Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has everyone in English football trailing behind him again, he comes up against his nemesis - Jose Mourinho.

Ferguson has already left traditional rivals Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal behind as he chases his third Premier League title in a row and has a Wembley date with Tottenham in the Carling Cup final on Sunday.

In the Champions League this week he comes up against a manager he has beaten only once in 12 meetings.

Now in charge of Inter Milan, Mourinho repeatedly beat Ferguson when the Portuguese coach led Chelsea to back-to-back Premier League titles and also edged him in the 2007 FA Cup final.

Ferguson and United's fans also have painful memories of Mourinho racing down the Old Trafford touch line waving his arms in celebration after a last-minute equalizer by FC Porto knocked their team out of the 2004 Champions League on a 3-2 aggregate.

Mourinho led the Portuguese club to the title that season. On Tuesday he faces Ferguson again at the same stage - the first knockout round - of the same competition.

This time, United is the defending champion. Inter, which is well clear of its rivals as it chases its fourth Serie A championship in a row, last won European football's biggest competition in 1965.

Although this is a Champions League game, Mourinho has an amazing home record of 110 matches unbeaten in league games with FC Porto, Chelsea and now Inter Milan dating back exactly seven years (Feb. 23, 2002).

The fact that Inter hasn't won this title for 43 seasons is nothing new for Mourinho. When he took charge of Chelsea, the club hadn't won the league title for 50 years. Pronouncing himself the "Special One", he gave the club not just one league championship but two in a row.

Despite their rivalry, the two managers have a huge respect for each other bordering on friendship. During his time at Chelsea, Mourinho would take a bottle of top quality wine along to meetings with Manchester United because he knew Ferguson was a collector.

"It will be a great pleasure to meet him again and it will be the same for him," Mourinho said. "We have had a great relationship from the start built on great respect and I hope it goes on like this to the end."

Now that he's facing up to Ferguson again, Mourinho is out to end the Reds' reign as Champions League holder and has started the mind games ahead of the first leg meeting at San Siro on Tuesday. The champions of England and Italy meet again at Old Trafford on March 11.

In a clear attempt to get under Ferguson's skin, Mourinho has tried to predict his tactics, the lineup which the veteran Scot will deploy and also the frame of mind of the United players.

"I'm not saying they're scared of us, but they respect us," Mourinho said. "I don't think they'll come with their usual approach. They will change more than us. We will play as we've always played in the Champions League.

"We aren't scared, but I doubt they will play with (Cristiano) Ronaldo, (Wayne) Rooney, (Carlos) Tevez and (Dimitar) Berbatov, as they often do in the Premier League. They aren't coming to San Siro to win."

Mourinho is aware that Ronaldo was voted world and European player of the year for 2008 after he scored 42 goals for Manchester United during the season when it won both the Premier and Champions Leagues. But he said his vote went to one of his own players.

"When people asked me before those awards who I thought deserved it, I said (Zlatan) Ibrahimovic," Mourinho said. "When players are with me, I always say that my players are the best. This is the way I work.

"I say (Ibrahimovic) is the best because he's mine. If I have to feed some self-confidence, I want to do it to my players, not anyone else's."

If United's players need a pre-game boost, they may get it from Ferguson. But they probably don't need to talk to him, just take a look at his success record.

Ten Premier League titles in 16 years, two Champions Leagues, five FA Cups, two League Cups, two Club World Cups and a European Cup Winners Cup say it all. Canadian Press


Arsenal needs to rediscover scoring form against Roma in Champions League

Arsenal needs to shrug off domestic league woes and rediscover its scoring form if it is to knock AS Roma out of the Champions League.

Without a trophy for three seasons, the Gunners are virtually out of contention in the Premier League and elimination from the top European competition would leave Arsene Wenger's team with just the FA Cup to go for.

The Gunners take on Roma at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday in the first leg of the opening knockout round and Wenger is weighed down by injury problems and his team's failure to score goals in the Premier League.

"In the first part of the season we conceded too many goals and scored high," Wenger said. "In the second half of the season, we do not concede anymore, but we do not score."

"The challenge is to find a balance between being solid defensively and good attacking."

With the domestic league titles effectively out of reach, Arsenal and Roma go head to head as they chase glory in European football's most prestigious competition. But current form suggests neither is good enough to go all the way to the final, which happens to be in Rome on May 27.

After three 0-0 draws in the Premier League the Gunners are 17 points behind Manchester United in the domestic title race and down in fifth place.

If Wenger's players fail to score again against Roma, they will have a tough job in the away leg in two weeks' time. But Wenger doesn't believe that the Italian side, which has conceded 31 goals in 25 Serie A games, will play over-defensively at the Emirates Stadium.

"You never know but certainly in the Champions League teams have a more positive attitude than the teams who have come in the Premier League to the Emirates recently," Wenger said Monday.

"Usually the Champions League is more enjoyable but more difficult as well. You feel like you play more on the edge. You feel if you make a mistake your opponent will take advantage of it which is not always the case with a team who just defends."

Wenger is disappointed he is without new signing Andrei Arshavin, who is unable to play Champions League matches for the Gunners because he played for Zenit St. Petersburg in an earlier stage of the competition.

"We signed Arshavin for the championship and for the FA Cup, obviously not for the Champions League," he said. "But he played in a team that is out of the competition. The logic is not really obvious. If he can play in the championship and in the cup then why not be qualified for the Champions League?"

He is also without Cesc Fabregas, Tomas Rosicky and Theo Walcott because of long-term injuries while, among his strikers, Emmanuel Adebayor and Eduardo da Silva are also sidelined.

That means Wenger may well be left with Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie as his strike force against Roma although he has the option of sending out a five-man midfield to match the lineup likely to be fielded by Luciano Spalletti.

Roma scraped past Siena 1-0 on Saturday and has 16 points and five places to make up on runaway leader Inter Milan in Serie A. But Daniele De Rossi and Simone Perrotta missed Saturday's game through suspensions, Mirko Vucinic was rested ahead of the game at Arsenal and Brazilian stars Juan and Cicinho have recovered from injuries they picked up against Siena.

Roma captain Francesco Totti said that Saturday's victory, which followed a 3-0 loss to Atalanta, gave his team a boost ahead of the visit to the Emirates Stadium.

"This is a very important victory for us," the striker said. "Now we are going to London ready to play a fascinating encounter."

Spalletti applauded his players' overall performance against Siena.

"My team showed a lot of character against Siena," he said. "The fighting spirit shown by my players is what makes the difference. My players have to be good at regenerating motivation day by day, there is no time to enjoy the present." Canadian Press


Atletico out to jump-start new era against Porto

Atletico Madrid, struggling to emerge from a decades-long shadow cast by illustrious neighbours Real, bid to get a new era under coach Abel Resino off to a winning start Tuesday against two-times European champions Porto.

A former Atletico goalkeeper, Resino, known simply as Abel, took charge three weeks ago after the club fired Mexican Javier Aguirre following a string of poor results which saw hpoes of playing a role in the Liga title chase evaporate.

Abel, 49, is only expected to be a stop-gap appointment until season's end but he will have to conjure something out of the hat against a Porto side who are unbeaten in a dozen league outings following last Friday's 2-0 win at Pacos de Ferreira, Hulk and Bruno Alves on target.

The win means Porto can go into Tuesday's Champions League last 16 first leg top of their domestic heap.

Atletico, only one win in ten games, will do well to heed the fact that the Portuguese, winners in 1987 at Bayern Munich's expense and then again under Jose Mourinho in 2004, have won six away games on a roll.

The Spaniards, who have won one, drawn one and lost one to date under Resino in the league, have Colombian defender Luis Perea sidelined for a month after a collision of heads with Sevilla's Koffi Romaric saw him knocked out cold.

Abel insists that his side will be 100 percent up for the challenge despite their poor recent form.

"We're looking to go as far as we can in the Champions League. I don't think right now that Atletico Madrid are inferior to Porto," says Abel, who played 243 games for the club - but never in European competition.

"I think it's going to be a very even contest," he added, insisting that the rojiblancos (red and whites) were capacle of coping with the pressure and the slight disadvantage of playing the return away from home.

Defender Pablo Ibanez says the change of coach is bringing dividends to a side which had lost its way under former Mexico coach Aguirre.

"With Abel we have improved the psychological aspect of things, which is what was previously lacking," Ibanez told reporters.

Much may depend on the form of striker Sergio Aguero, who became a father on February 19 when his fiancee Gianina Maradona, daughter of Argentina coach Diego, gave birth to a boy, Benjamin Aguero Maradona

Atletico finished runners-up in their opening phase group behind Liverpool while Porto beat Arsenal into second place in their pool.

The Portuguese side's Colombian midfielder Freddy Guarin will miss the match with ankle trouble while Jorge Fucile also has an ankle problem but has made the squad, Portuguese media reported Sunday. AFP


Lyon hopes winning run will help against Barcelona in Champions League

Lyon hopes that its run of victories and Barcelona's recent dip in form will favour the French club Tuesday when the two sides meet in the first knockout round of the Champions League.

"Barcelona is a great team, they'll be the favourites," Lyon forward Cesar Delgado said Monday. "But tomorrow we have the opportunity to prove that Lyon is a great team, too. We can win that match. We just need to be self-confident. We have the ability to do it."

Lyon has won its last three matches to increase its lead in the French league and could afford to field a makeshift team in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Nancy. Captain Juninho and France striker Karim Benzema, along with Fabio Grosso, Honorato Ederson and Kader Keita were all rested from the starting lineup.

By contrast, a Barcelona side that had looked invincible until recently has suddenly become mortal, with Espanyol ending its 22-game unbeaten run in the Spanish league on Saturday with a 2-1 victory.

Although the Catalan club had to play with 10 men after Seydou Keita was sent off in the 39th minute, and remains at the top of the standings, Barcelona has collected only one point from its last two matches.

"We'll be facing a team who play good football and who have quality players," Lyon defender Cris said. "But we're hitting form just at the time to put on a great performance against Barcelona.

"We'll try to press them high up the pitch, because they've got good players up front. We're going to have to be aggressive when it comes to marking them."

Juninho was also optimistic.

"If we play at our best level, we can compete and even win because we have already performed well against big European teams," he said.

In its favour, Lyon has one of the tightest defences in the French league with 16 goals conceded in 25 matches.

However, it has the worst defence in the Champions League of all the teams who have reached the knockout phase, conceding 10 goals in the six matches during the group stage.

That statistic will be a worrying one, given Barcelona's attacking threat.

The 2006 Champions League winner has the deadliest strike force in Europe, scoring 71 goals in 24 Spanish league matches this season - twice as many as Lyon in the French league - and 105 goals in all competitions.

Barcelona's attack is based on a fearsome trident formed by Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto'o and Lionel Messi, who have scored 51 goals in the Spanish league and 66 in all competitions.

"Henry is so smart," Lyon defender John Mensah was quoted by L'Equipe. "He forces you to be very focused, always on your guard."

Lyon's priority in trying to keep them quiet will be to cut off their supply lines from Barcelona's midfield. To succeed in that, the French side is likely to deploy a five-man midfield, supporting a lone striker up front.

The prospect of being swamped by Lyon in the middle of the field does not appear to bother Eto'o.

"We're still the best team in the world," Eto'o told L'Equipe. "We will play the same way on Tuesday. We will attack with only one thing in mind: scoring a goal."

Eto'o will be hoping Barcelona's defence will also rise to the occasion Tuesday. The Spanish side conceded eight goals in the group stage, losing to Shakhtar Donetsk 3-2, while Lyon can boast the second-best attack of the group stage with 14 goals.

"Benzema is a great player," Messi said. "A quality player who can make the difference."

Benzema is the top striker in the Champions League with five goals, the same as Messi, Steven Gerrard and Miroslav Klose.

"It's a team that plays at a high tempo," Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola said. "Against that kind of team, we know that any lapse of concentration can cost us dearly."

Barcelona will be without Gabriel Milito (knee), Eric Abidal (groin) and Andres Iniesta (hamstring), while Lyon will miss Francois Clerc (knee), Anthony Reveillere (knee), Sidney Govou (Achilles tendon) and Mathieu Bodmer (groin). Lyon's Fabio Santos (thigh) is doubtful.

Lyon held Barcelona to a 2-2 draw at Stade Gerland in the group stage last season, having lost at Camp Nou 3-0. Canadian Press