Manchester United draw Inter in Champions League last 16

19 December 08 by Bill

The Champions League draw for the first knock out stage has paired Manchester United with Italian giants Internazionale. The first leg will be played at the San Siro on 24th February with the return leg two weeks later on 11th March. Chelsea and Arsenal also drew Italian opposition and will play Juventus and Roma respectively whilst Liverpool were drawn against Real Madrid.

United have played Inter just twice in the club’s history; a Champions League quarter final match in 1999 which United won 3 – 1 on aggregate (2 – 0 win at home and a 1 – 1 draw away). It does also mean a return of the ego, Jose Mourinho, who has a slightly better record against United. Mourinho left England having lost to Sir Alex only once in a handful of meetings between Chelsea and United and knocked us out of the competition with Porto back in 2004.

As you would expect, Ferguson is relishing the opportunity to pit his wits against one of football’s most colourful characters:

“It’ll be interesting to come up against Jose again,” he told MUTV. “He’s a good character with a good personality and I’ve always got on well with him.

“He knocked us out of the competition when he was at Porto, so I hope we have the luck they had in that tie this time round.”

Rather than be wary of the draw, Ferguson is convinced the bigger games bring out even better performances in his squad and with the team currently struggling for consistency, I hope he is right.

“Playing against the bigger teams brings a better focus and concentration to our game as we showed against Barcelona last season,” Ferguson explained.

“We knew the most important thing we had do in that tie was to concentrate and our concentration in both games was terrific.

“The San Siro is a great stadium to play in. We’ve lost two semi-finals to AC Milan there so we want to go there and do better.”

Jose Mourinho is also happy with the draw. He told a press conference:

“I am satisfied, I wanted the best and I have got the European champions who maybe in two days will be world champions.

“It is a team with the current Ballon D’Or winner, a great coach in Alex Ferguson and a stadium with a fantastic atmosphere.

“It will be unforgettable returning to Manchester.”