For the third year in a row, Barcelona and Chelsea will meet in the
UEFA Champions League. Barca, the defending champion, was drawn with
Chelsea in Group A for the group stage of the European club competition.
Last year, Barcelona beat Chelsea in the second round en route winning
the title. In 2005, the Blues knocked out Barcelona in the first
knockout phase. The clubs have won their respective league titles two
years in a row.
Dutch champion PSV, which includes Americans DaMarcus Beasley and
Lee Nguyen
in its first team, faces a ptoentially difficult draw in Group C, where
it will face 2005 champion Liverpool, French club Bordeaux and Turkish
champion Galatasaray. Group F features three former champions:
Manchester United, Celtic and Benfica.
DRAW
Group A:
Barcelona, Chelsea, Werder Bremen, Levski Sofia.
Group B:
Inter Milan, Bayern Munich, Sporting Lisbon, Spartak Moscow.
Group C:
Liverpool, PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux, Galatasaray.
Group D:
Valencia, Roma, Olympiakos, Shakhtar Donetsk.
Group E:
Real Madrid, Lyon, Steaua Bucharest, Dynamo Kiev.
Group F:
Manchester United, Celtic, Benfica, FC Copenhagen.
Group G:
Arsenal, Porto, CSKA Moscow, Hamburg.
Group H: AC
Milan, Lille, AEK Athens, Anderlecht.
THIRD-ROUND HIGHLIGHTS:
-- American Oguchi Onyewu
started and played the first 63 minutes in Belgian club Standard
Liege's 2-1 loss to Steaua Bucharest that put the Romanian team through
to the group stage of the UEFA Champions League for the
first time in a decade with a 4-3 win on aggregate. Four other former
European Cup champions won their series in the third qualifying stage:
Benfica, AC Milan, Hamburg and Liverpool.
-- Denmark's FC Copenhagen pulled off the shock of the
night when it overcame a 2-1 deficit and beat Ajax, 2-0, in Amsterdam
to knock out the four-time champion. The Danish champions qualified for
the lucrative group stage for the
first time thanks to goals from Michael
Silberbauer and an
own goal by Ajax's Belgian defender, Thomas Vermaelen.
-- Levski Sofia became the first Bulgarian team to reach
the group stage after a 2-2 draw with Chievo Verona in Italy
gave it a 4-2 victory on aggregate.



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