Tags:
Journalism of Courage
Defending champions AC Milan will play Premier League leaders Arsenal in the second round of the Champions League, and Inter Milan will face Liverpool in another matchup between Italian and English clubs.
Nine-time European winners Real Madrid meet AS Roma in another matchup, while English champions Manchester United take on six-time defending French titlist Lyon.
Also, FC Barcelona will face Celtic, Chelsea will take on Olympiakos, Schalke will meet FC Porto and Fenerbahce will face off with Sevilla.
“It’s Milan versus England,” AC Milan organising director Umberto Gandini said. “We’ve seen better draws. Certainly this was the most difficult of the teams we could have faced. We’ll be playing as the reigning European and world champion and hopefully we can keep going.”
The matchup is a surprisingly rare one bearing in mind the two teams play Champions League soccer year after year. Milan and Arsenal have been matched together once before, in the two-leg 1995 Super Cup.
Five-time champions Liverpool have been in two of the last three finals, beating AC Milan on penalties in 2005 and losing to the same club 2-1 last season. Now they take on the other Milan powerhouse, who are unbeaten in 16 games and lead the Serie A but haven’t won the European title since 1965.
“The history is in favor of Liverpool but our team has been in good form so I hope we will be in the right condition to win this match,” said Inter chief executive Ernesto Paolillo.
