United face Celtic in quest to retain Champions League
Torres will go home to Madrid in tough group
Own goal leads to City scrapping through in UEFA cup
Former hero returns to City
Robinho could play in London derby on Sunday
United set to field strong team for Super Cup
Celtic and Rangers almost entered Football League
Republic clash moved again
England great Channon injured in fatal car crash
English clubs had four of the top five seeds for today’s Champion’s League draw, Last year’s finalists Manchester United and Chelsea held the top two positions while Liverpool and Arsenal were seperated by Barcelona, also in the top seeds were Olympique Lyon, Inter Milan and the other Spanish giants Real Madrid.
As normal the draw was a long drawn out affair, Manchester United were pitted with Celtic as well as Villarreal and AaB Aalborg in Group E.
Chelsea will face Roma, Bordeaux and first time Romanians CFR Cluj in Group A.
In Group D, Fernando Torres will face his former club Atletico Madrid. Liverpool will also face PSV and Marseille in a tough draw.
Arsenal also face a tough draw and will face Porto, Fenerbache and Dynamo Kyiv.
Group H could well be dubbed the ‘Group of Death’, with Real Madrid, Juventus, Zenit and BATE.
Cyprus’ first ever team in the Champions League, Anorthosis, will face Inter Milan, Bremen and Panathinaikos.
Matchday 1 will be on 16/17 September.
Manchester City scrapped through to the first round after a penalty shoot out in the UEFA cup against Danish team FC Midtjylland, after Danny Califf scored an own goal in the 90th minute to take the game to extra-time. Michael Johnson saw City’s third penalty saved by Heinze, but Joe Hart also saved the next penalty by new Danish international Borring. Hart was City’s hero after saving the fourth spot kick as well after guessing right to save from Afriyie. Corluka scored the winning penalty.
Meanwhile a day after saying he wasn’t interested in a move back to his former club, Shaun Wright-Phillips has rejoined Manchester City on a four-year deal for an undisclosed amount. The stepson of former goalscoring legend Ian Wright joined Chelsea for £21m in July 2005 but failed to become a regular in the team and also has seen his appearances for England limited in recent times.
Real Madrid forward Robinho should complete his €36m (£28.7m) transfer to Chelsea in time to make his debut in the home derby with Tottenham Hotspur, according to his agent Wagner Ribeiro. Ribeiro said on Wednesday night that he expects his client to be a Chelsea player ‘by either tomorrow or Friday,’ adding in the The Daily Telegraph, ‘he should be available to Scolari for this weekend’.
Manchester United are expected to field a ’strong’ side for their Super Cup clash with UEFA cup winners Zenit on Friday night in Monaco. The Manchester club will be looking to double their wins in the competition after beating Red Star back in 1991. Manager Sir Alex Ferguson is looking for his third win in the competition.
Meanwhile Zenit manager Dick Advocaat claims Celtic and Rangers tried to join the English League’s bottom tier at the start of the decade. The Dutchman, who was manager of Rangers between 1998 and 2001, revealed that he had talks with then Celtic manager Martin O’Neill and the boards from both teams about joining the English League in the third division.
After saying that the Republic of Ireland’s clash with Georgia would be played in Karsruhle it has now been confirmed it will be played in Mainz, Germany instead.
Ex-England footballer turned racehorse trainer Mick Channon has been seriously injured in a fatal motorway accident. The 59-year-old was travelling from Doncaster Sales to his Berkshire stables when the accident happened on Wednesday on the M1 in Leicestershire. Bloodstock agent Tim Corby, 63, was killed in the single-vehicle crash.