Football Media

Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
Wednesday 10 March 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
First knockout round, second leg

Real Madrid CF will hope to move a step closer to their dream of reaching this year’s UEFA Champions League final at their Santiago Bernabéu home when they welcome Olympique Lyonnais for the second leg of their last-16 tie. The nine-times European champions have not reached the quarter-finals since 2004 but will hope to put that right by finally getting the better of opponents who avoided defeat on both of their previous two trips to the Spanish capital and travel defending a 1-0 lead thanks to Jean II Makoun’s 47th-minute thunderbolt in the first leg.

Previous meetings
• The clubs first squared off in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. Lyon defeated Madrid 3-0 at the Stade de Gerland before a 1-1 draw in the Spanish capital, John Carew (72) cancelling out Guti’s goal (41) and securing first place in the group for the Ligue 1 side.
• The lineups for that meeting in Madrid on 23 November 2005 were:
Madrid: Casillas, Ramos, Pavón, Helguera, Roberto Carlos, Diogo, Pablo García, Beckham (Salgado 80), Zidane (Baptista 76), Guti, Robinho.
Lyon: Coupet, Réveillère, Cris, Caçapa, Monsoreau (Fred 70), Tiago, Mahamadou Diarra, Juninho (Clément 90+3), Govou (Wiltord 69), Carew, Malouda.
• Lyon again claimed top spot in their group with a draw at the Bernabéu in 2006/07. After a 2-0 home victory against Los Merengues in September 2006, they drew 2-2 in Madrid on 21 November that year despite letting slip a two-goal lead. Mahamadou Diarra (39) – playing against his old club – and Ruud van Nistelroy (83) restored parity after Carew (11) and Malouda (31) had struck, Grégory Coupet then saving a last-minute Van Nistelrooy penalty to secure Lyon a point.
• The lineups were:
Madrid: Casillas, Ramos, Helguera, Cannavaro, Roberto Carlos, Emerson (Cassano 76), Mahamadou Diarra, Guti, Robinho, Van Nistelrooy, Raúl.
Lyon: Coupet, Réveillère, Cris, Squillaci, Abidal, Toulalan (Alou Diarra 90+2), Tiago, Juninho, Clerc, Carew, Malouda.

Match background
• Madrid have already beaten one Ligue 1 team at the Santiago Bernabéu this term, registering a 3-0 success against Olympique de Marseille in the group stage.
• However, the Spanish side have lost their last three two-legged contests with Ligue 1 opposition, going down on away goals to AS Monaco FC in the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals and losing to Paris Saint-Germain FC in the last eight of both the 1992/93 UEFA Cup and the 1993/94 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
• Lyon have fallen at this stage in each of the past three campaigns, losing 6-3 to FC Barcelona 12 months ago after a 1-1 home draw was followed by a 5-2 defeat in Catalonia.
• Their only win in seven attempts in Spain came at this stage of the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League when a 1-0 first-leg success at Real Sociedad de Fútbol, courtesy of Gabriel Schürrer’s own goal, set them on the way to a 2-0 aggregate victory.
• Sidney Govou is the only survivor of the Lyon team that won in San Sebastian. Rémy Vercoutre watched from the bench.
• Lyon have won three out of four away games in this season’s UEFA Champions League.
• Madrid won the first of their nine European Champion Clubs’ Cups by beating French club Stade de Reims Champagne 4-3 in the competition’s inaugural final in 1955/56. They defeated the same opponents 2-0 three years later to claim a fourth successive crown.
• History provides Madrid with plenty of cause for optimism, the Spanish club having overturned a first-leg deficit at the Santiago Bernabéu on 20 previous occasions in UEFA competition, most recently against FC Bayern München in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals (1-2 away, 2-0 home). They have been eliminated 11 times after losing the away leg, however, including at this stage of the competition in 2007/08 with a pair of 2-1 losses to AS Roma.
• Lyon have won the first leg at home 11 times in UEFA competition and failed to progress only once, against Werder Bremen in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup third round (3-0 home, 0-4 away). The most recent of Lyon’s ten aggregate wins came in this season’s play-off round against RSC Anderlecht (5-1 home, 3-1 away).

Team ties
• Madrid coach Manuel Pellegrini got the better of his Lyon counterpart Claude Puel when they met in the UEFA Champions League in the 2005/06 group stage.
• Pellegrini’s Villarreal CF earned a goalless draw at Puel’s LOSC Lille Métropole before a 1-0 home win earned Villarreal progress as group winners and eliminated Lille.
• Puel has had little joy against Spanish sides, suffering a 4-2 aggregate defeat by RCD Mallorca in the 1999/2000 UEFA Cup fourth round while at Monaco. With Lille he enjoyed a 1-0 win against Sevilla FC in the 2004/05 UEFA Cup group stage but suffered a round of 16 elimination by the same opponents in the 2005/06 edition.
• The Lyon coach lost against Spanish opposition in his first ever European tie as a player. His Monaco team went down 2-0 at Valencia CF in the 1980/81 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup first round, before a 3-3 second-leg draw. Nine years later Puel was in the Monaco side that beat Real Valladolid CF on penalties after a 0-0 aggregate draw in the quarter-finals of the same competition.
• A product of the Lyon academy, Benzema spent five seasons in the club’s first team, making 112 league appearances and scoring 43 goals. He helped Lyon win four league titles and finished the 20-goal top scorer in Ligue 1 in 2007/08.
• Benzema’s fellow Lyon old boy Mahamadou Diarra made 121 appearances for the club between 2002 and 2006 before leaving for the Santiago Bernabéu.
• Madrid’s French internationals Benzema and Lassana Diarra could line up against several national-team colleagues in the Lyon squad. Likewise, Madrid duo Gonzalo Higuaín and Fernando Gago may face Lyon’s Argentinian international Lisandro while Madrid’s Kaká and Marcelo are team-mates with Michel Bastos and Cris for Brazil.
• Higuaín has French citizenship having been born in Brest when his father Jorge, also a professional footballer, was playing for Stade Brestois 29.
• Kaká and Cristiano Ronaldo have both helped eliminate Lyon from the UEFA Champions League. The former was in the AC Milan side that beat Lyon in the 2005/06 quarter-finals, while Ronaldo scored the only goal when Manchester United FC recorded a home win against Lyon in the last 16 in 2007/08 to complete a 2-1 aggregate success.
• Govou was in the France side that overcame a Spain team featuring Madrid’s Iker Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Xabi Alonso and Raúl González in the last 16 of the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals.
• Casillas, Raúl Albiol and Sergio Ramos helped Spain gain a measure of revenge with a 1-0 friendly win against a France featuring Lyon midfielder Jérémy Toulalan and Madrid’s Lassana Diarra in February 2008.
• Kim Källström appeared as a late substitute in Sweden’s 2-1 loss to a Spain side including Casillas, Ramos and Albiol at UEFA EURO 2008.
• Rafael van der Vaart came off the bench to score for AFC Ajax in a 2-0 win at Lyon in the UEFA Champions League group stage in October 2002. He also featured as a substitute in the Netherlands’ 4-1 victory against France at UEFA EURO 2008.

Old Trafford, Manchester
Wednesday 10 March 2010 – 20.45CET (19.45 local time)
First knockout round, second leg

Manchester United FC will look to deny David Beckham a happy homecoming when AC Milan come to town for the second leg of the clubs’ UEFA Champions League last-16 tie.

• Beckham’s return to Old Trafford will dominate the build-up but United fans will be more concerned about their current favourites’ ability to rediscover their best home form and protect a 3-2 lead gained in the first leg in Milan.
• Sir Alex Ferguson’s team recovered from Ronaldinho’s third-minute opener in San Siro, Paul Scholes (36) levelling before a pair of Wayne Rooney headers (66, 74) put them in control of the tie – although Clarence Seedorf’s 85th-minute strike gives Milan hope for Manchester.
• United picked up only four points at Old Trafford in the group stage and surrendered their 23-match unbeaten home run in the UEFA Champions League to Be?ikta? JK.
• The last foreign visitors to beat United before Be?ikta? were Milan in 2005 and they return to Old Trafford buoyed by away victories at Olympique de Marseille and Real Madrid CF.

Previous meetings
• Milan won all four of the clubs’ two-legged encounters down the years, but only once have they avoided defeat in the away leg.
• The teams first faced each other in the 1957/58 European Champion Clubs’ Cup semi-finals, when Milan became the first team to overturn a first-leg deficit against United in the competition. After Tommy Taylor’s 80th-minute strike secured United a 2-1 success at Old Trafford, Milan turned the tables in the return, Juan Schiaffino (2), Nils Liedholm and Giancarlo Danova scoring in a 4-0 triumph.
• When the sides met again in the 1968/69 semi-finals, Milan prevailed 2-1 on aggregate. The Rossoneri followed up a 2-0 home success with a 1-0 defeat in Manchester, where present-day United director Sir Bobby Charlton found the net.
• Milan recorded 1-0 victories home and away in the teams’ UEFA Champions League first knockout round encounter in 2004/05, Hernán Crespo the scorer in both games.
• The teams for the first leg of that tie in Manchester on 23 February 2005 were:
United: Carroll, Neville (Silvestre 80), Ferdinand, Brown, Heinze, Ronaldo (Van Nistelrooy 63), Scholes, Keane, Fortune (Saha 80), Giggs, Rooney.
Milan: Dida, Cafu (Costacurta 87), Nesta, Maldini, Kaladze, Gattuso, Pirlo (Ambrosini 84), Seedorf, Rui Costa, Kaká (Serginho 90), Crespo.
• United earned a 3-2 first-leg lead at Old Trafford when the clubs met in the 2006/07 semi-final, Wayne Rooney’s double strike overturning a 2-1 half-time deficit. But Milan powered through to the final by winning the return 3-0 through goals from Kaká, Seedorf and Alberto Gilardino.
• The lineups for the Old Trafford game on 24 April 2007 were:
United: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Brown, Heinze, Evra, Fletcher, Carrick, Scholes, Ronaldo, Rooney, Giggs.
Milan: Dida, Oddo, Nesta, Maldini (Bonera 46), Jankulovski, Gattuso (Brocchi 52), Pirlo, Ambrosini, Seedorf, Kaká, Gilardino (Gourcuff 84).

Match background
• Even before losing to Be?ikta?, United had struggled at Old Trafford, falling behind against both VfL Wolfsburg and PFC CSKA Moskva before fighting back to earn a win and a draw respectively.
• Sir Alex’s men can take heart from a strong home record against Italian teams. Since Milan’s victory in Manchester – their only success away to English opposition – the Premier League champions have recorded five straight wins against visitors from Serie A.
• Milan snatched a 2-2 draw at Portsmouth FC on their last trip to England in November 2008, retrieving a two-goal deficit through late goals from Ronaldinho (84) and Filippo Inzaghi (90+2) in the UEFA Cup group stage.
• Milan won the 2003 UEFA Champions League at Old Trafford, beating Juventus on penalties after a goalless draw.
• Dida, Gennaro Gattuso, Inzaghi, Alessandro Nesta, Andrea Pirlo and Seedorf all started the final, while Massimo Ambrosini appeared as a substitute. Gianluca Zambrotta, now a Milan player, was in the Juventus lineup.
• Ominously for Milan, of the four previous occasions they have lost the first leg at home in UEFA competition, they have won only one tie. That came against 1. FC Saarbrücken in the 1955/56 European Cup first round, Milan’s first European tie, when a 4-3 defeat in Italy was followed by a 4-1 away success. However, FC Barcelona (1959/60 European Cup first round and 2005/06 UEFA Champions League semi-finals) and RCD Espanyol (1987/88 UEFA Cup second round) all built on a first-leg away win to eliminate Milan.
• United, meanwhile, have progressed in all 12 UEFA club competition ties where they have won the first game away from home.

Team ties
• Milan coach Leonardo lined up against Gary Neville in a 1995 friendly international at Wembley, coming on as a substitute in Brazil’s 3-1 victory. He later faced both Neville and Scholes in a 1997 friendly in Paris that Brazil won 1-0.
• Beckham had a 12-year association with United, signing as a schoolboy in 1991 and making his debut in 1995. He went on to make 394 appearances in all competitions, scoring 86 goals, before leaving for Real Madrid in 2003.
• During his time at Old Trafford, Beckham collected six Premier League winners’ medals and together with Ryan Giggs and Neville, was part of the team that won the UEFA Champions League final in 1999.
• Beckham scored his last goal at Old Trafford in a 4-1 league win against Charlton Athletic on 3 May 2003. The previous month he had registered his final UEFA Champions League goals in a United shirt when scoring twice in the 4-3 quarter-final home victory against Madrid.
• Beckham and Michael Owen played together at Madrid in 2004/05.
• Inzaghi played with Edwin van der Sar at Juventus between 1999 and 2001.
• Inzaghi scored an 84th-minute winner for Juventus when they defeated United 1-0 in Turin in the UEFA Champions League group stage in December 1997. He also found the net twice against United in a 3-2 home loss for the Bianconeri in the 1999 semi-finals.
• Thiago Silva was in Brazil’s lineup for a 1-0 win against an England side including Wes Brown, Ben Foster and Rooney in a friendly in Qatar last November.
• When Ronaldinho scored Brazil’s winner against England in the 2002 FIFA World Cup quarter-finals, Rio Ferdinand, Scholes and Owen all featured on the losing side along with Beckham.
• Ronaldinho and Anderson both started their careers with Brazilian club Grêmio FBPA.
• Mathieu Flamini played in the Premier League for Arsenal FC from 2004 to 2008, finishing on the winning side against United only twice in eight meetings.
• Zambrotta was in the FC Barcelona side beaten by United in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League semi-finals – indeed it was his misplaced pass that led to Scholes scoring the only goal of the tie at Old Trafford.
• Flavio Roma was a colleague of Patrice Evra in the AS Monaco FC team that lost the UEFA Champions League final to FC Porto in 2004.
• Evra played in Italy for lower-division clubs Marsala Calcio and Monza Calcio.
• Ji-Sung Park scored for PSV Eindhoven against Milan in the 2005 UEFA Champions League semi-final, albeit in a losing cause.

Artemio Franchi, Florence
Tuesday 9 March 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
First knockout round, second leg

After a stunning victory at Juventus in their last European away game, FC Bayern München will hope to hit the heights again when they return to Italy to take on ACF Fiorentina with a quarter-final place at stake.

• Facing a win-or-bust scenario, Bayern won 4-1 at Juventus in December to reach the last 16 but Louis van Gaal’s men may need to emulate that display to get the better of a Fiorentina side with a 100% home record in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
• This time round, Bayern do have a lead to defend having won 2-1 in Germany on 17 February thanks to Miroslav Klose’s 89th-minute winner after Per Krøldrup (50) had cancelled out Arjen Robben’s penalty opener in first-half added time.

Previous meetings
• Bayern prevailed 3-0 when the clubs met for the first time on 21 October 2008, Miroslav Klose (4), Bastian Schweinsteiger (25) and Zé Roberto (90) getting the goals.
• The teams drew 1-1 in the return at the Stadio Artemio Franchi on 5 November. Adrian Mutu gave the Viola an 11th-minute lead but they were denied a victory when Tim Borowski equalised after 78 minutes. Bayern finished as group winners while Fiorentina had to wait until Matchday 6 for their only victory of that campaign.
• The lineups for that meeting in Florence were:
Fiorentina: Frey, Zauri, Gamberini, Dainelli, Gobbi, Melo, Kuzmanovi? (Osvaldo 79), Montolivo, Santana (Almirón 63), Mutu, Gilardino.
Bayern: Rensing, Oddo, Lucio, Demichelis, Zé Roberto, Van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger (Kroos 79), Ribéry, Klose, Podolski (Ottl 89).

Match background
• While Bayern are seeking a second successive quarter-final appearance, Fiorentina have not reached the last eight of UEFA’s elite club competition since 1970.
• Fiorentina had a 100% winning record at home in the group stage, beating Liverpool FC, Debreceni VSC and Olympique Lyonnais.
• Bayern took six points on their travels in the group stage – beating Maccabi Haifa FC and Juventus and losing at FC Girondins de Bordeaux – and make the trip to Italy having won seven and lost only three of their last 13 away fixtures in the UEFA Champions League.
• Van Gaal’s side overwhelmed Juventus 4-1 on 8 December, prevailing through goals from Hans-Jörg Butt, Ivica Oli?, Mario Gómez and Anatoliy Tymoshchuk to secure second place in Group A and extend their unbeaten run on Italian soil to four matches.
• Bayern won the 2001 UEFA Champions League final at San Siro in Milan, beating Valencia CF on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
• In 1989/90 Fiorentina qualified for the UEFA Cup final by following a 1-1 draw at Werder Bremen with a goalless draw in Italy to advance on away goals.
• Cesare Prandelli’s men are hoping to avoid the fate of the last sides to enter the first knockout round on the back of five straight wins, namely FC Internazionale Milano FC and Sevilla FC in 2007/08. Both lost in the last 16.
• Bayern have taken a first-leg lead at home on 44 occasions in UEFA competition and have won the tie 36 times, most recently against CF Os Belenenses in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round (1-0 home, 2-0 away). The last of those eight aggregate defeats came in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals against Real Madrid CF (2-1
home, 0-2 away).
• Fiorentina have overturned a first-leg away defeat only twice in seven attempts, most recently in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup first round when they eliminated Club Atlético de Madrid on penalties after each side had won their home game 1-0.

Team ties
• Van Gaal got the better of Fiorentina with FC Barcelona in the 1999/2000 UEFA Champions League group stage. The Dutchman oversaw a 4-2 home victory against the Viola in September 1999, before a 3-3 draw in Florence two months later.
• Van Gaal has twice faced Italian opposition in the UEFA Champions League final. In 1995 his AFC Ajax team overcame AC Milan 1-0, before losing the following season’s showpiece to Juventus after a penalty shoot-out.
• Van Gaal had previously guided Ajax to victory against Torino FC in the 1992 UEFA Cup final.
• Bayern goalkeeper Butt’s goal against Juventus on Matchday 6 was his third against the Bianconeri in Europe. He converted a spot-kick for Hamburger SV in a 4-4 draw in 2000/01 and another for Bayer 04 Leverkusen in a 3-1 win the following season.
• In 2006 Alberto Gilardino appeared as a substitute in Italy’s 2-0 FIFA World Cup semi-final win against a Germany team including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Schweinsteiger.
• Gilardino tasted semi-final defeat when Milan lost out to a Barcelona side including Mark van Bommel in the 2005/06 UEFA Champion League semi-final.
• The following campaign, Gilardino was part of the Milan team that got the better of Bayern at the quarter-final stage despite two goals from Daniel Van Buyten at San Siro.
• Mutu featured as a second-half substitute in former club Juventus’s 2-1 loss at Bayern in the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League group stage. He was a late substitute in the return in Turin when Juve won by the same scoreline.
• Stefan Effenberg played for both Bayern – with whom he won the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League – and Fiorentina. Effenberg joined the Viola in 1992 from Bayern, returning to the Bavarian giants in 1998.
• Luca Toni spent two free-scoring seasons with Fiorentina from 2005-07 before moving on to Bayern. He joined AS Roma on loan in January.

Arsenal Stadium, London
Tuesday 9 March 2010 – 20.45CET (19.45 local time)
First knockout round, second leg

FC Porto will not want to dwell on their last trip to the Arsenal Stadium before the UEFA Champions League first knockout round tie return. They lost 4-0, continuing a run of disappointing results in England where they have failed to win in 13 visits.

• Porto at least have a slender lead to protect this time round thanks to goals from Silvestre Varela (11) and Falcao (51) at the Estádio do Dragão, although Sol Campbell’s away goal (18) could yet prove crucial.
• History is also against Arsenal, however, who have managed to overturn a first-leg away defeat in UEFA competition only once in nine previous attempts.

Previous meetings
• The heavy defeat – Porto’s worst away reverse in the competition – came in last season’s group stage as Robin van Persie and Emmanuel Adebayor both scored a goal in each half.
• The teams for that 30 September 2008 fixture were:
Arsenal: Almunia, Sagna, Gallas, Touré, Clichy, Nasri (Eboué 65), Fàbregas, Walcott (Vela 72), Denilson, Van Persie (Bendtner 65), Adebayor.
Porto: Helton, Bruno Alves, Benítez, Fredy Guarín, Lisandro, Rodríguez (Candeias 79), Rolando, Raul Meireles (Hulk 64), Costa, S?punaru, Fernando (Lucho 46).
• Goals either side of half-time from Bruno Alves and Lisandro earned Porto a 2-0 win at home.
• The teams for that 10 December 2008 encounter were:
Porto: Helton, Bruno Alves, Pedro Emanuel, Lucho (Costa 78), Lisandro, Rodríguez (Mariano 78), Hulk (Guarín 88), ucile, Rolando, Raul Meireles, Fernando.
Arsenal: Almunia, Diaby (Gibbs 60), Gallas, Vela, Denilson, Ramsey (Wilshere 59), Song (Randall 79), Silvestre, Djourou, Bendtner, Eboué.
• Arsenal’s only other meeting with Porto in north London came in the 2006/07 group stage, the home team running out 2-0 winners. Fàbregas, Tomáš Rosický, Gallas, Van Persie and Eboué all started for Arsenal with Song and Walcott appearing as second-half substitutes. Almunia was also on the bench. For Porto, Helton and Bruno Alves were in the starting XI while Raul Meireles came on in the second half. Fucile was also on the bench.

Match background
• Arsenal finished on top of Group H having won all three home games, conceding just a single goal, in a 4-1 defeat of AZ Alkmaar. They beat both runners-up Olympiacos FC and R. Standard de Liège 2-0.
• Prior to their meetings with Porto, Arsenal had faced Portuguese opposition only once before in UEFA club competition, when they exited the European Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1991/92 at the hands of SL Benfica. After a 1-1 draw in Lisbon, the Gunners suffered a 3-1 extra-time loss in the deciding leg of the second-round tie.
• This is the tenth successive campaign in which Arsenal have advanced from the initial group stage. Last season they reached the semi-finals before bowing out to Manchester United FC, losing 1-0 away and 3-1 at home. In the first knockout round they edged out AS Roma on penalties after both legs had ended 1-0 to the home side.
• It is the sixth time in seven consecutive group-stage campaigns that Porto – who finished second in Group D, two points behind Chelsea FC – have reached the knockout rounds. Last season they also bowed out to Manchester United, in the quarter-finals, after a 1-0 defeat at Estádio do Dragão having drawn 2-2 at Old Trafford. In the first knockout round they eliminated Club Atlético de Madrid on away goals, drawing 2-2 in Spain and 0-0 at home.
• Porto have finished second best in five of their last six knockout ties with English opponents. The exception came at Old Trafford in the 2003/04 first knockout round when José Mourinho’s team gained a 1-1 draw after winning the home leg 2-1.
• Porto have lost all six games in London, most recently in this season’s group stage with a 1-0 reverse at Chelsea. Their other two away games produced wins – 1-0 at APOEL FC and 3-0 away to Atlético.
• Porto have a strong record when winning the first leg at home, going through on aggregate 31 times including the last 24 ties in which they have travelled defending an advantage. The most recent of their four defeats came against Grasshopper-Club in the 1980/81 UEFA Cup second round (2-0 home, 0-3 away).
• Ominously for Arsenal, they have managed to prevail only once in the nine UEFA club competition ties in which they lost the first leg away from home, defeating HNK Hajduk Split on away goals in the 1978/79 UEFA Cup second round after a 2-1 away loss was followed by a 1-0 home win. Three recent UEFA Champions League campaigns have been ended following an away defeat; against FC Bayern München in 2004/05 (1-3 away, 1-0 home), PSV Eindhoven in 2006/07 (0-1 away, 1-1 home) and Manchester United FC last season (0-1 away, 1-3 home).

Team ties
• Wenger was in charge of AS Monaco FC for their 1-1 draw at CF Os Belenenses in the first round of the 1989/90 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, the French club winning the return 3-0.
• Samir Nasri was in the Olympique de Marseille side defeated 2-1 at Porto in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage.
• In December 2004 Nuno helped Porto to a 2-1 victory against a Chelsea team featuring Gallas in the UEFA Champions League group stage.
• Bruno Alves and Raul Meireles played in Portugal’s 2-0 loss against Switzerland in UEFA EURO 2008 Group A fixture. Johan Djourou was an unused substitute for the co-hosts.
• Nicklas Bendtner scored Denmark’s first goal in a 3-2 FIFA World Cup qualifying win against Portugal in September 2008. Raul Meireles played for the home team who managed a 1-1 draw in the Copenhagen return a year later. Bendtner was again on target in a game with Raul Meireles and Bruno Alves in the Portugal team.
• Cristián Rodríguez was a late substitute in París Saint-Germain FC’s 4-1 win against an AJ Auxerre side featuring Sagna in March 2006, seven months before they faced each other again in a goalless draw between the teams.
• In February 2007 Rodríguez’s PSG drew 1-1 at the Stade Vélodrome against an Olympique de Marseille including Nasri in Ligue 1.