Big guns ready to boom again

‘‘It will be harder because they’re going to want revenge, they need revenge,’’ Chelsea defender William Gallas said. ‘‘When a team is hurt, they want to show their fans, and the whole world, that what happened last year was an error.’’ Both sides went on to win their respective leagues last year and are in position for a repeat.

This time, Chelsea hosts the first leg. Last season, Barcelona had a 2-1 home-leg advantage and then rallied from 3-0 down only to lose 4-2 at Stamford Bridge.

Last year, the behavior of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho, had come under a lot of criticism when he alleged that the Barcelona Manager Frank Rijkaard had colluded with the match referee Anders Frisk. While the referee retired after death threats, Mourinho was banned from Chelsea’s quarter final match against Bayern Munich.

David Beckham will play against an English side for the first time since moving to Spain when real madrid hosts Arsenal tomorrow. Defending champion Liverpool hosts Benfica, who eliminated Manchester United from the competition, while Dutch leader PSV Eindhoven hosts French front-runner Lyon, and AC Milan plays Bayern Munich.

Also on Wednesday, Werder Bremen hosts Italian League leader Juventus, struggling Scottish club Rangers plays Villarreal in Glasgow and Inter Milan travels to Ajax. Real Madrid hasn’t won a trophy since 2003 despite its talent-laden roster. Madrid is seven points behind leader Barcelona in the Spanish league and out of the Copa Del Rey, so the champions league could be the only chance to break the drought.