[han2503]

Giants await Euro fate

Residents of Milan and Rome are nervously awaiting the Champions League draw which takes place at 5pm on Thursday afternoon in Monaco.

Lazio ensured that the peninsula’s full complement of four sides made it to the Group stage with a 3-1 away win against Romanian champions Dinamo Bucharest on Tuesday.

No two sides from the same country can meet in this round, but Shakhtar Donetsk’s Cristiano Lucarelli may well be returning to his homeland.

Milan and Inter are top seeds, Roma are in the second pot and Lazio are in the third seeding bracket.

The seedings in full:

Pot One; Milan, Barcelona, Liverpool, Inter, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United

Pot Two: Valencia, Lyon, Porto, Sevilla / AEK Athens, PSV, Roma, Benfica, Werder Bremen

Pot Three: Celtic, Schalke, Stuttgart, Steaua Bucharest, CSKA Moscow, Sporting Lisbon, Lazio, Marseille

Pot Four: Rangers, Shakhtar Donetsk, Besiktas, Olympiakos, Dynamo Kiev, Fenerbahce, Slavia Prague, Rosenborg

[jbryant1]

We have an interesting draw. Not the toughest but not exactly the easiest. In my mind of all the Pot 2 teams Benfica is probably one of the weakest that we could have gotten. Pot 3 Celtic was one of the better teams. Pot 3 is just a bunch of small teams that barely squeezed through.

Benfica has technique and ability. They have Rui Costa, Nuno Gomez. An interesting defensive line-up with Nelson down the flanks and Lusiao in the middle. Were stronger but they could cause problems for us.

Celtic- We played pretty evenly with them last season. Luckily that Kaka goal in overtime saw us through. They will bring that physical play to us. We are superior in every way but they could cause us trouble. I was in Prague when I saw the second match up and I was the only Milan fan in there.

Donestk- We will brush aside with no problem.