United and Roma will clash again

MONACO -- Manchester United and Roma, who were involved in two Champions League games memorable both for exhilarating football and unpleasant crowd disorder, have been thrown together again in the opening stages of this season's tournament.

European Cup holders AC Milan start the defense of their title against Benfica, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk, in Group D.

In the first leg of last season's quarterfinal in Rome, United and Roma fans threw missiles and some of United's supporters fell foul of baton-wielding Italian police.

Roma won the game 2-1 but were destroyed 7-1 in the return match at Old Trafford, as United gave a dazzling display of attacking football.

Police in both cities will be planning for the two ties as meticulously as the respective club coaches.

Sporting Lisbon and Dynamo Kiev complete Group F.

United manager Sir Alex Ferguson agreed that the pairing with Roma was one of the outstanding features of the draw.

"That will be the talking point after last season," said Ferguson.

"It is a very tight group," he added. "Dynamo Kiev are a good side.

"We also have two of Sporting Lisbon's former players, so we know a bit about them."

United's only previous meeting with Sporting came during a European Cup Winners' Cup campaign 44 years ago, when a team containing George Best, Bobby Charlton and Denis Law were hammered 5-0 in the Portuguese capital.

"The whole group possesses some very interesting aspects," he said. "We hope we can get 10 points. It will be difficult but if we can get that I think we will qualify."

Milan were given a stern test by Scottish champions Celtic last season, overcoming them 1-0 on aggregate after extra time at the San Siro Stadium.

The Scots also faced Benfica last season in the group stages, winning 3-0 at home then losing 3-0 in Portugal.

Celtic faced Shakhtar Donetsk in 2004/05 tournament, losing 3-0 away and winning 1-0 at home.

The Parkhead side qualified with a dramatic 4-3 penalty-shoot-out win over Spartak Moscow on Wednesday and their chief executive Peter Lawwell said: "It's a very exciting draw.

" It's not new ground for us, which could be to our advantage."

Liverpool, the five-time winners, are in Group A with 2004 champions Porto, Marseille and Besiktas, while Chelsea are in Group B with Valencia, whom they beat in the quarterfinals last year, Schalke 04 and Rosenborg.

Liverpool's clash with Marseille will see them meet up with former striker Djibril Cisse and midfielder Bolo Zenden, who left Anfield in the summer.

"We'll catch up with a couple of old boys in Djibril and Bolo at Marseille and of course we've got one or two happy memories of Istanbul so we'll take it," said Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry, whose club won the title in Istanbul in 2005 with their famous comeback win over AC Milan.

"We've proved in the past we can beat anybody on our day. We've won the competition and got to the final last year."

Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon said: "We have been semifinalists three times in the last four years.

"It is the elusive competition for us when you look at our record. But there is a big determination fueled by a squad we have strengthened."

Rangers have a tough assignment in Group E where 2006 champions Barcelona, six-time French champions Lyon and German champions Stuttgart await.

Andrew Dickson, Rangers' head of football administration, said: "It's not particularly easy but it's wonderful to be there. I don't think it could be any tougher but it was always going to be hard."

Stuttgart coach Armin Veh says his side will be looking to cause a few upsets.

"It was always clear that we would get a difficult group," he said

"But we want to sell ourselves as much as possible and after winning the German title gave us an automatic passage into the group stages, we aren't just there to make up the numbers."

Arsenal, the beaten finalists in 2006, have never met any of their Group H opponents before and must wait for Sevilla and AEK to complete their qualifying tie, the second leg of which was postponed this week because of the death of Sevilla defender Antonio Puerta.

"The Champions League is a very challenging competition, you might not have heard of some of the teams but they give you tough matches," said Arsenal managing director Keith Edelman.

DRAW:

Group A: Liverpool (Eng), Porto (Por), Marseille (Fra), Besiktas (Tur)

Group B: Chelsea (Eng), Valencia (Spn), Schalke (Ger), Rosenborg (Nor)

Group C: Real Madrid (Spn), Werder Bremen (Ger), Lazio (It), Olympiakos (Gre)

Group D: AC Milan (It), Benfica (Por), Celtic (Sco), Shakhtar Donetsk (Ukr)

Group E: Barcelona (Spn), Lyon (Fra), Stuttgart (Ger), Rangers (Sco)

Group F: Manchester United (Eng), Roma (It) , Sporting Lisbon (Por), Dynamo Kiev (Ukr)

Group G: Inter Milan (It), PSV Eindhoven (Neth) , CSKA Moscow (Rus), Fenerbahce (Tur)

Group H: Arsenal (Eng), Sevilla (Spn)/AEK Athens (Gre), Steua Bucharest (Rom), Slavia Prague (Cze) E-mail to a friend