England at war with Italy again

FEB 24 — The quest for the Holy Grail of European club football resumes tonight after a two-month break.

I must confess, I have not missed waking up at the ungodly hour of 3.45am to catch these matches on two consecutive days, while still coming to work just hours later.  But that is the way it goes in Asia, and we are fortunate to be watching great action from the best clubs in the world in our living room.

I am sure you will agree too that there are some mouth-watering ties in the Last 16 Knockout round to look forward to.

As English fans will tell you, they are at war with Italy, again. This time, it is left to Manchester United, Chelsea and Arsenal to do what British forces did to the Italians more than 60 years ago in the Second World War.

In the first round of matches, tonight, Manchester United travel to Inter Milan while Arsenal host Roma. Tomorrow, Chelsea will see the return of ex-manager Claudio Ranieri for their match against Juventus.

Meanwhile the fourth English representative in Europe is Liverpool and they don’t have it any easier travelling to Real Madrid for a tie that takes a few sons of Spain back to their home soil.

Arsenal v Roma

This time last year Arsenal FC and AS Roma both achieved the surprise results of the round with victories over AC Milan and Real Madrid respectively.

This season both teams are hard-pressed to strike fear into lesser-known teams in their domestic leagues let alone Europe.  Both teams are also in danger of not qualifying for Europe’s elite competition next season.

So, a strong win to take either team past the first knockout round could be the boost they require.

Coming in first in the group stages gives the advantage to Roma to play away first thereby knowing what they have to do back at their turf in the second leg.

With Cesc Fabregas out injured, Roma’s Francesco Totti is expected to dominate the midfield. Julio Baptista will hope to strike a huge blow to his former club for not having enough faith in his ability.

Arsenal were hoping to be boosted by the return of Eduardo but due to a hamstring injury in the FA Cup tie in which he scored twice last week, this match has now come a bit too early for him.

It’s a tough one to call, but a draw is the most likely result as Roma defensively resolute, far more than Sunderland were over the weekend, and we all know how that turned out.

Inter Milan v Manchester United

When the draw paired them up, the first thing that springs to mind was the Jose Mourinho-Alex Ferguson battle. The duo have had their share of successes against each other but more often than not it was Mourinho who came out tops.

The Special One takes on an English team for the first time since his dramatic exit from Chelsea back in September 2007. Ironically, the last time he took on an English team in Europe before moving to Chelsea back in 2004, it was also against MU.

As manager of Porto, he helped the Portuguese side take their first step in the same stage, on their way to winning the Champions League in May 2004.

Remember his amazing run towards his players to celebrate the goal that earned them a draw and 3-2 aggregate win over MU? That was at Old Trafford and the crowd there have never forgotten him since.

Add to that his record of losing to Ferguson only once in 10 matches as manager of Chelsea, and you will find a person who will not feel threatened by the aura of invincibility that seems to surround Ferguson at present.

The home advantage and absence of Nemanja Vidic in the MU defence should increase the likelihood of his top strikers Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Adriano getting the necessary result to take to Old Trafford in two weeks time, where we will hopefully see another famous run down the touch-line by Mourinho.