Manchester United fans still remember the iconic and celebratory Old Trafford touchline sprint of Jose Mourinho in 2004 when the self-proclaimed ‘special one’, in charge of FC Porto en route to Champions League glory, knocked the Red Devils out of the competition to kick start a long personal battle with Sir Alex Ferguson. Now the United faithful have their chance to seek their revenge as the defending champions were drawn against Mourinho’s Italian champions Internationale Milan in the Swiss city of Nyon early on Friday. With the second leg set for Old Trafford the script could not have been written better.

Yet, it has to be admitted that as far as head to head encounters are concerned, the Portuguese tactician has a clear edge over his Scottish counterpart given the constant domestic success Chelsea’s former boss enjoyed over the English champions during his three years at Stamford Bridge.

If United v Inter is the talk of the town, this year’s last sixteen draw has produced some of the biggest European duels the knock out stage has ever experienced at such an early stage. Fortunately or unfortunately all four English clubs have been handed tough jobs with three of the clubs facing Italian oppositions. According to England’s Italian coach Fabio Capello, the draw is ‘diabolical’ and he added that no one in the world could have hoped for such draws involving Italian and English clubs.

2005 champions Liverpool have a mighty task on their hands when they face off against Juande Ramos’ Real Madrid and the match is set to have striking Spanish influences when Rafael Benitez takes his battle-hardened Merseyside team to the Bernabeu on February 25.
Heart-broken on a wet Moscow night early in May, 2008 runners-up Chelsea have been pitted against former boss Claudio Ranieri’s Juventus side which has set its sight for renewed European glory.

The side from Turin has shown class and determination to put it across Real Madrid twice in the group stages and amazingly Juve has veteran Alessandro Del Piero enjoying one of the best seasons of his career. This is a potential spoiling fixture for Luiz Felipe Scolari’s side particularly with the return leg set for the imposing Della Alpi stadium.

Many may feel that Arsenal has probably the best of the draws among all the English clubs, yet a two-legged affair with Italian cup champions AS Roma could be dicey for Arsene Wenger’s heavily inexperienced and inconsistent Arsenal side with the second leg being at the Olympic stadium. Luciano Spalletti’s Roma, led by the maverick goal scorer Francesco Totti, have had a stop-start season but the side from the eternal city could spring back to life on big matchdays.

After getting used to drawing Manchester United at knock out stages over the past few years, this draw against Arsenal, albeit an English club, would have come as a booster for the underperforming European and Italian underdogs. Yet undoubtedly Arsene Wenger would be a very happy man given what his fellow managers have learnt about their fates in the last sixteen draw.

With four of the eight fixtures getting all the attention of the media and the football world, the other four have thrown up some low profile yet interesting clashes with German champions Bayern Munich up against Sporting Lisbon, Spanish dark horses Villarreal and Greek side Panathinaikos face off in a classic battle of underdogs. Atletico Madrid and FC Porto have been drawn against each other to set up an Iberian rivalry and lastly, undisputed French champions Olympique Lyon have been provided with an uphill task to tackle Pep Guardiola’s high-flying Barcelona.