The UEFA Champions League draw has yielded some very interesting groups this year, too.

The strongest UEFA Champions League group is probably group G, where AC Milan faces Real Madrid, Ajax Amsterdam and Auxerre.

Also very strong is group A, where title holders Inter Milan are facing Werder Bremen, Tottenham Hotspur and Twente, the outsiders of the group.

Here’s the full UEFA Champions League group lineup.

Group A
Inter
Werder Bremen
Tottenham Hotspur
FC Twente

Group B
Lyon
Benfica
Schalke
Hapoel Tel-Aviv

Group C
Manchester United
Valencia
Rangers
Bursaspor

Group D
Barcelona
Rubin Kazan
Panathinaikos
FC Copenhagen

Group E
Bayern Munich
Roma
Basel
CFR Cluj

Group F
Chelsea
Marseille
Spartak Moscow
Zilina

Group G
AC Milan
Real Madrid
Ajax
Auxerre

Group H
Arsenal
Shakhtar Donetsk
Sporting Braga
Partizan

The UEFA Champions League draw just took place and some interesting pairings have come out of it, as you can see below.

It must be said that the first legs of these games will take place on 17/18 August, with the second matches in the following week.

One of the most interesting games opposes Young Boys Berna, which eliminated Fenerbahce in the previous round.

Braga meets Sevilla in a duel of neighboring countries, while Zenit meets Auxerre.

Werder Bremen vs Sampdoria will be another great clash, and so will be Dynamo Kyiv meeting Ajax Amsterdam.

Here’s the full list of games for you.

• FC Salzburg (AUT) – Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC (ISR)
• Rosenborg BK (NOR) – FC København (DEN)
• FC Basel 1893 (SUI) – FC Sheriff (MDA)
• AC Sparta Praha (CZE) – MŠK Žilina (SVK)
• FK Partizan (SRB) – RSC Anderlecht (BEL)
• BSC Young Boys (SUI) - Tottenham Hotspur FC (ENG)
• SC Braga (POR) – Sevilla FC (ESP)
• SV Werder Bremen (GER) – UC Sampdoria (ITA)
• FC Zenit St. Petersburg (RUS) – AJ Auxerre (FRA)
• FC Dynamo Kyiv (UKR) – AFC Ajax (NED)

These teams will be joined by the 22 teams that enter the group stage automatically.

Draws for play-offs to be held at UEFA Headquarters on 6 August

The draw for the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League and of the UEFA Europa League will take place on Friday 6 August at the House of European Football in Nyon, starting at 12.00 and 13.30 CET respectively.

The draw ceremonies will be conducted by UEFA General Secretary Gianni Infantino and UEFA Competitions Director Giorgio Marchetti.

For the champions route in the play-offs of the UEFA Champions League, the 10 teams will be divided in equal number with 5 teams seeded and 5 teams unseeded in accordance with the UEFA club coefficient rankings.

For the league route, which is the new name of the qualifying path involving the “non-champions” of the top 15 associations, the 10 teams will also be divided in equal number with 5 teams seeded and 5 unseeded.

For the UEFA Europa League draw, the 74 teams will be divided into 5 groups of 10 teams and into 2 groups of 12 teams, with an equal number of clubs seeded and unseeded withineach group. Clubs from the same association cannot be drawn against each other.

The Technical Sub-Committee of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) approved several requests from member associations and confederations to implement the experiment with two additional assistant referees during the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 seasons at a meeting held today, Wednesday, 21 July 2010 in Cardiff, Wales. The full list of approved requests can be found below.

At a previous Special Meeting of the IFAB held in Zurich on 18 May 2010, the Board had reviewed the experiment with two additional assistant referees that was carried out in the 2009/2010 UEFA Europa League, and had decided to continue the experiment until the 126th IFAB Annual General Meeting in 2012, but not to limit it to a single confederation. Therefore, confederations and member associations wishing to conduct this experiment were invited to inform IFAB of their interest for a decision to be taken at the meeting of the Technical Sub-Committee in Wales.

Four basic criteria had been established in order to approve the experiment:

1. The experiment must be conducted in member associations’ professional leagues and competitions or at confederation level (club competitions only).

2. The experiment must be completed in time to allow a decision to be taken in 2012.

3. The additional costs incurred by conducting such an experiment must be covered by the relevant league, member association or confederation.

4. It is mandatory for all matches in the applicable competition to be officiated with two additional assistant referees.

Based on these criteria, the following requests were approved, provided that the protocol established by the IFAB for the experiment is followed:

Asian Football Confederation (AFC): AFC President’s Cup 2010 (24-26 September)

Confederação Brasileira de Futebol (CBF): Campeonato Baiano de Futebol Feminino 2010 (Sept-Dec 2010), Campeonato Carioca de 2011

Federación Mexicana de Fútbol Asociación (FMF): Torneo Clausura 2011, Torneo Apertura 2011 and Torneo Clausura 2012

Fédération Française de Football (FFF): Coupe de la Ligue 2010/2011 (League Cup)

Union des associations européennes de football (UEFA): UEFA Champions League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, UEFA Europa League 2010/2011 and 2011/2012, and UEFA Super Cup 2010 and 2011.

Also approved, but pending confirmation of the specific competitions, were official competitions of the Federação Baiana, the Federação Paulista and Federação Pernambucana in Brazil.

Finally, FIFA and the Technical Sub-Committee confirmed that goal-line technology will be on the agenda of the next Annual Business Meeting of the IFAB in October 2010.

FC Barcelona have already beaten FC Internazionale Milano once at home this season and they need a repeat performance if they are to claim a place in next month’s UEFA Champions League final.

José Mourinho’s visitors may have performed well on their travels in recent rounds but they lost 2-0 at the Camp Nou in November and have never won a semi-final away leg in Europe’s elite club competition.

The Italian champions hold the upper hand in the tie, however, despite Pedro Rodríguez’s 19th-minute strike at San Siro. Wesley Sneijder levelled on the half-hour, and second-half goals from Maicon (48) and Diego Milito (61) left Barcelona with plenty of work to do in the second leg.

For two-time winners Inter, the goal is a first final appearance since 1972. Josep Guardiola’s Barcelona, by contrast, are looking to take the penultimate step towards becoming the first team since Inter’s neighbours AC Milan 20 years ago to win back-to-back European crowns.

In a contest rich in sub-plots, Inter coach Mourinho returns once more to the club he served as assistant coach and he is not alone, with Nerazzurri players Samuel Eto’o, Thiago Motta and Ricardo Quaresma all having enjoyed spells at the Camp Nou.

Mourinho served as an assistant to the late Sir Bobby Robson and Van Gaal at Barcelona from 1996 to 2000.

As Chelsea manager Mourinho oversaw a 5-4 aggregate defeat of Barcelona in the 2004/05 first knockout round but suffered a 3-2 overall loss at the same stage the next season. The 2006/07 campaign brought another reunion, this time in the group stage, with Chelsea finishing above Barça after a 1-0 home win and 2-2 away draw.

Guardiola played in Italy between 2001 and 2003, making 24 appearances in Serie A for Brescia Calcio and another four for AS Roma. Inter forward Diego Milito, 30, could line up against his 29-year-old brother Gabriel of Barcelona. The Argentinian siblings played together for two seasons with Real Zaragoza between 2005 and 2007.

Watch LIVE Inter vs Barcelona on UEFA.com website

Stade de Gerland, Lyon
Tuesday 27 April 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Semi-finals, second leg

Olympique Lyonnais will look to their formidable European home record this season as they bid to overturn a 1-0 deficit and secure a first UEFA Champions League final place at the expense of FC Bayern München.

• Claude Puel’s side are unbeaten at Stade de Gerland in Europe this season and, having won their last three UEFA Champions League home outings, will hope to make it four in a row against their German visitors.
• Finalists seven times previously, Bayern lost on their travels in the last two rounds of the competition but are now within touching distance of their first UEFA Champions League showpiece since 2001, when they last lifted the trophy.
• Arjen Robben scored the only goal in the 69th minute of an eventful first leg in Munich. Both teams finished proceedings with ten men after Bayern’s Franck Ribéry was shown a straight red card in the 37th minute for a high tackle on Lisandro while Jérémy Toulalan collected two yellow cards early in the second half.

Previous meetings
• Before the first leg, the clubs had met six times in the UEFA Champions League over the past decade, recording two wins apiece.
• In the 2008/09 group stage, they drew 1-1 in Munich, Zé Roberto (52) cancelling out a Martín Demichelis own goal (25).
• Bayern secured first place in the section with a 3-2 win in Lyon on the final matchday that consigned their hosts to second. The Bavarian side raced into a three-goal lead through Miroslav Klose (11, 37) and Ribéry (34) before Sidney Govou (52) and Karim Benzema (68) narrowed the deficit.
• The full lineups for that meeting on 10 December 2008 were:
Lyon: Lloris, Gassama (Källström 64), Mensah, Boumsong, Grosso, Toulalan, Makoun, Govou, Ederson (Delgado 77), Mounier (Fred 64), Benzema.
Bayern: Rensing, Oddo (Breno 90), Demichelis, Van Buyten, Lahm, Van Bommel, Borowski, Schweinsteiger (Alt?ntop 89), Ribéry, Klose (Ottl 68), Toni.
• It was Lyon first and Bayern second when the teams met in the 2003/04 group stage. Then they drew 1-1 at Gerland – Péguy Luyindula’s 88th-minute equaliser rescuing the hosts – before Lyon won 2-1 in Bavaria through a goal from Bayern old boy Giovane Elber.
• Demichelis featured for Bayern in those games with Anthony Réveillère and Govou in the Lyon side.
• The clubs first met in the 2000/01 second group stage, Jens Jeremies scoring the only goal in Munich in November 2000. Govou is the only survivor of that encounter, having appeared as an 81st-minute substitute.
• Govou hit two first-half goals to set up a 3-0 Lyon victory in the return fixture in France on 6 March 2001, but Bayern still advanced and went on to claim the trophy that year while Les Gones were eliminated.

Match background
• Lyon have never played in the final of a major European competition – the closest they got previously was the last four of the 1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal after a replay.
• Bayern, by contrast, are competing in their 13th semi-final in Europe’s elite club competition and aiming to qualify for their first final since they beat Valencia CF to win the UEFA Champions League in 2001 – when, as now, they overcame Manchester United FC in the quarter-finals.
• Four-times winners, Bayern’s record in European Champion Clubs’ Cup semi-finals is seven wins and five defeats:
2000/01 Real Madrid CF: 1-0 (a), 2-1 (h)
1999/00 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (a), 2-1 (h)
1998/99 FC Dynamo Kyiv: 3-3 (a), 1-0 (h)
1994/95 AFC Ajax: 0-0 (h), 2-5 (a)
1990/91 FK Crvena Zvezda: 1-2 (h), 2-2 (a)
1989/90 AC Milan: 0-1 (a), 2-1 (h)
1986/87 Real Madrid CF: 4-1 (h), 0-1 (a)
1981/82 PFC CSKA Sofia: 3-4 (a), 4-0 (h)
1980/81 Liverpool FC: 0-0 (a), 1-1 (h)
1975/76 Real Madrid CF: 1-1 (a), 2-0 (h)
1974/75 AS Saint-Etienne: 0-0 (a), 2-0 (h)
1973/74 Újpest FC: 1-1 (a), 3-0 (h)
• Overall Bayern have contested 20 semi-finals in UEFA competition, winning nine and losing 11. Their most recent semi-final was against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup when they drew 1-1 at home but lost 4-0 away.
• Lyon have been in fine form at Gerland this term, recording five wins and a draw in the UEFA Champions League – qualifying play-off included.
• Lyon’s home record against teams from the Bundesliga is W6 D1 L3. In two-legged ties, their record is two wins and three defeats.
• Furthermore, the French club have overturned a first-leg away defeat only twice in UEFA competition while suffering six aggregate eliminations. That tally of overall losses includes both occasions where the French side lost 1-0 away first time round – a 6-2 aggregate defeat by Germany’s VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1974/75 UEFA Cup second round and a 1-0 overall loss in the third round of the same competition against Nottingham Forest FC in 1995/96.
• Bayern lost 2-1 at FC Girondins de Bordeaux – Lyon’s victims in the quarter-finals – on their last visit to France in this season’s group stage.
• Bayern’s away record against Ligue 1 opposition is W3 D3 L6.
• They have won two out of three two-legged contests with French sides, most recently the 1995/96 UEFA Cup final against Bordeaux.
• Bayern recorded their third European Cup final victory by beating France’s St-Etienne 1-0 in 1976, Franz Roth the scorer.
• The German club have won through in 38 of the 46 UEFA competition ties in which they have won the first leg at home. When winning 1-0 in Munich their record reads two aggregate wins and two defeats, however, those setbacks coming against FC Dynamo Kyiv in the 1976/77 European Cup quarter-final and Tottenham Hotspur FC in the 1983/84 UEFA Cup third round with both away legs lost 2-0.
• Bayern did progress after their most recent 1-0 home first-leg win, eliminating CF Os Belenenses from the 2007/08 UEFA Cup first round with a 2-0 win in Portugal.
• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal is hoping to lead the German club to the UEFA Champions League 15 years after winning it with Ajax. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970, Hamburger SV 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (BV Borussia Dortmund 1997, Bayern 2001) have won the European Cup as coaches of two different clubs. FC Internazionale Milano’s José Mourinho, a winner with FC Porto in 2004, is also attempting the feat this time round.
• Bayern feature two players in their squad with experience of a UEFA Champions League final. Mark van Bommel won the 2006 showpiece while at FC Barcelona and Hans-Jörg Butt was on the losing side with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002.

Team ties
• Van Gaal faced France’s AJ Auxerre in the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League group stage while at Ajax. He oversaw a 1-0 win in France and a 2-1 home defeat.
• Klose has unhappy memories of facing Lyon – he was in the Werder Bremen side beaten 10-2 on aggregate by Les Gones in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League round of 16.
• Ribéry had mixed fortunes against Lyon in French football. He never got the better of them in Ligue 1, in one game with FC Metz and three while at Olympique de Marseille. But he did help eliminate them twice from the French Cup. In 2005/06, he set up Mamadou Niang’s winner in a 2-1 quarter-final success at Gerland and the next season featured again as OM won 2-1 in a last-16 tie at Vélodrome.
• Daniel Van Buyten spent two and a half seasons at Marseille from 2001.
• Van Buyten, who did not manage a victory in five Ligue 1 outings against Lyon, scored against them in a 4-1 home defeat for Marseille in November 2003. Réveillère and Govou were in the opposition lineup.
• Butt faced Lyon with Leverkusen in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2001/02. While Leverkusen won 1-0 in France, Les Gones prevailed 4-2 in Germany with Govou among the scorers.
• Robben struck his first UEFA Champions League goal for PSV Eindhoven against Auxerre in a 3-0 home win on 30 October 2002. He also scored in the Netherlands’ 4-1 defeat of France at UEFA EURO 2008. Lyon’s Toulalan, Bafétimbi Gomis and Govou were in the France team along with Ribéry.
• Kim Källström was in the Sweden team beaten 2-0 by a Germany side including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• On 14 October last year David Alaba appeared as a substitute for Austria in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat in France. Hugo Lloris, Govou and Gomis were in the opposition team.
• Lyon’s penalty shoot-out record in UEFA club competitions is: 2-4 v PSV Eindhoven, 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-final
• Bayern’s record is:
5-4 v Valencia CF, 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final
9-8 v PAOK FC, 1983/84 UEFA Cup second round
4-3 v Åtvidaberg FF, 1973/74 European Champion Clubs’ Cup first round
• The victorious team will advance to the final at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium in Madrid on 22 May where they will play the winners of the Barcelona-Inter semi-final.

Fusball Arena München, Munich
Wednesday 21 April 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Semi-finals, first leg
FC Bayern München will hope 13 proves a lucky number when they take on first-time semi-finalists Olympique Lyonnais.
• The Bundesliga outfit are competing in their 13th semi-final in Europe’s elite club competition and aiming to qualify for their first final since they last won the UEFA Champions League in 2001 – when, as now, they overcame Manchester United FC in the quarter-finals.
• Bayern hold the advantage in terms of history for this is Lyon’s first UEFA Champions League semi-final. Indeed the Ligue 1 visitors have never played in the final of any major European competition – the closest they got previously was the last four of the 1963/64 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, losing to Sporting Clube de Portugal after a replay.

Previous meetings
• The clubs have met six times in the UEFA Champions League over the past decade, recording two wins apiece.
• In the 2008/09 group stage, they drew 1-1 in Munich, Zé Roberto (52) cancelling out a Martín Demichelis own goal (25).
• The full lineups for that meeting on 30 September 2008 were:
Bayern: Rensing, Oddo, Breno, Lucio, Lahm, Schweinsteiger, Demichelis, Zé Roberto, Ribéry (Borowski 82), Klose, Toni.
Lyon: Lloris, Réveillère, Cris, Bodmer, Mensah, Juninho (Boumsong 87), Toulalan, Makoun, Govou (Ederson 36), Fred (Mounier 75), Benzema.
• Bayern secured first place in the section with a 3-2 win in Lyon on the final matchday that consigned their hosts to second. The Bavarian side raced into a three-goal lead through Miroslav Klose (11, 37) and Franck Ribéry (34) before Sidney Govou (52) and Karim Benzema (68) narrowed the deficit.
• It was Lyon first and Bayern second when the teams met in the 2003/04 group stage. Then they drew 1-1 at Stade de Gerland – Péguy Luyindula’s 88th-minute equaliser rescuing the hosts – before Lyon won 2-1 in Bavaria through a goal from Bayern old boy Giovane Elber.
• Demichelis featured for Bayern in those games with Anthony Réveillère and Govou in the Lyon side.
• The clubs first met in the 2000/01 second group stage, Jens Jeremies scoring the only goal in Munich in November 2000. Govou is the only survivor of that encounter, having appeared as an 81st-minute substitute.
• Govou hit two first-half goals to set up a 3-0 Lyon victory in the return fixture in France on 6 March 2001, but Bayern still advanced and went on to claim the trophy that year while Les Gones were eliminated.

Match background
• Bayern lost home (0-2) and away (1-2) in the group stage to French champions FC Girondins de Bordeaux – Lyon’s victims in the quarter-finals.
• Four-times European champions, Bayern’s record in European Champion Clubs’ Cup semi-finals is seven wins and five defeats:
2000/01 Real Madrid CF: 1-0 (a), 2-1 (h)
1999/00 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (a), 2-1 (h)
1998/99 FC Dynamo Kyiv: 3-3 (a), 1-0 (h)
1994/95 AFC Ajax: 0-0 (h), 2-5 (a)
1990/91 FK Crvena Zvezda: 1-2 (h), 2-2 (a)
1989/90 AC Milan: 0-1 (a), 2-1 (h)
1986/87 Real Madrid CF: 4-1 (h), 0-1 (a)
1981/82 PFC CSKA Sofia: 3-4 (a), 4-0 (h)
1980/81 Liverpool FC: 0-0 (a), 1-1 (h)
1975/76 Real Madrid CF: 1-1 (a), 2-0 (h)
1974/75 AS Saint-Etienne: 0-0 (a), 2-0 (h)
1973/74 Újpest FC: 1-1 (a), 3-0 (h)
• Overall Bayern have contested 20 semi-finals in UEFA competition, winning nine and losing 11. Their most recent semi-final was against FC Zenit St. Petersburg in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup when they drew 1-1 at home but lost 4-0 away.
• Bayern’s home record against Ligue 1 opposition is W7 D2 L3. They have won two out of three two-legged contests with French sides, most recently the 1995/96 UEFA Cup final against Bordeaux.
• Bayern recorded their third European Cup final victory by beating France’s St-Etienne 1-0 in 1976, Franz Roth the scorer.
• Bayern coach Louis van Gaal is hoping to lead the German club to the UEFA Champions League 15 years after winning it with Ajax. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970, Hamburger SV 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (BV Borussia Dortmund 1997, Bayern 2001) have won the European Cup as coaches of two different clubs. FC Internazionale Milano’s José Mourinho, a winner with FC Porto in 2004, is also attempting the feat this time round.
• Bayern feature two players in their squad with experience of a UEFA Champions League final. Mark van Bommel won the 2006 showpiece while at FC Barcelona and Hans-Jörg Butt was on the losing side with Bayer 04 Leverkusen in 2002.
• Lyon have recorded four wins and a draw on their last five visits to Germany. Their overall record on German soil is W4 D2 L5.
• In two-legged ties against Bundesliga sides, Lyon’s record is two wins and three defeats.

Team ties
• Van Gaal faced France’s AJ Auxerre in the 1996/97 UEFA Champions League group stage while at Ajax. He oversaw a 1-0 win in France and a 2-1 home defeat.
• Klose has unhappy memories of facing Lyon – he was in the Werder Bremen side beaten 10-2 on aggregate by Les Gones in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League round of 16.
• Ribéry had mixed fortunes against Lyon in French football. He never got the better of them in Ligue 1, in one game with FC Metz and three with Olympique de Marseille. But he did help eliminate them twice from the French Cup. In 2005/06, he set up Mamadou Niang’s winner in a 2-1 quarter-final success at Gerland and the next season featured again as OM won 2-1 in a last-16 tie at Vélodrome.
• Daniel Van Buyten spent two and a half seasons at Marseille from 2001.
• Van Buyten, who did not manage a victory in five Ligue 1 outings against Lyon, scored against them in a 4-1 home defeat for Marseille in November 2003. Réveillère and Govou were in the opposition lineup.
• Butt faced Lyon with Leverkusen in the first group stage of the UEFA Champions League in 2001/02. While Leverkusen won 1-0 in France, Les Gones prevailed 4-2 in Germany with Govou among the scorers.
• Arjen Robben struck his first UEFA Champions League goal for PSV Eindhoven against Auxerre in a 3-0 home win on 30 October 2002. He also scored in the Netherlands’ 4-1 defeat of France at UEFA EURO 2008. Lyon’s Jérémy Toulalan, Bafétimbi Gomis and Govou were in the France team along with Ribéry.
• Kim Källström was in the Sweden team beaten 2-0 by a Germany side including Klose, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger at the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
• On 14 October last year David Alaba appeared as a substitute for Austria in a 3-1 World Cup qualifying defeat in France. Hugo Lloris, Govou and Gomis were in the opposition team.
• The second leg will be played in Lyon on 27 April. The victorious team will advance to the final in Madrid on 22 May where they will play the winners of the Inter-Barcelona semi-final.

Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan
Tuesday 20 April 2010 – 20.45CET (20.45 local time)
Semi-finals, first leg

FC Internazionale Milano welcome the holders to San Siro for the first leg of a UEFA Champions League semi-final rich in sub-plots.
• FC Barcelona travel to Italy seeking to become the first team since Inter’s neighbours AC Milan 20 years ago to win back-to-back European crowns. As for Inter, their goal is a first final appearance in the competition since 1972 but first they must find the net against a Barcelona side whom they are yet to score against after four meetings.
• For the second time this season, Zlatan Ibrahimovi? and Maxwell return to their old stamping ground to face a Nerazzurri side featuring three former Barcelona players in Samuel Eto’o, Thiago Motta and Ricardo Quaresma.
• The presence of José Mourinho in the home dugout adds another layer of intrigue given his history as a former assistant coach at Barcelona – not to mention several high-profile contests with the Spanish titleholders during his time as Chelsea FC manager.
• Barcelona earned a goalless draw when they visited Inter in September and another closely contested encounter appears on the cards given the unbeaten records of both teams – the Nerazzurri at home and Josep Guardiola’s visitors on the road – in the 2009/10 UEFA Champions League.

Previous meetings
• These two sides need no introduction having met last autumn in the group stage. They drew 0-0 at San Siro on 16 September before reconvening in Barcelona on 24 November, the Catalan side prevailing 2-0 through first-half strikes from Gerard Piqué and Pedro Rodríguez.
• The clubs had previously met in the UEFA Champions League second group stage in 2002/03. Barcelona were 3-0 winners at the Camp Nou on 18 February 2003. Goals from Javier Saviola, Phillip Cocu and Patrick Kluivert secured a ninth successive victory in the UEFA Champions League proper, still a competition record.
• The return the following week finished goalless and both teams progressed to the quarter-finals, Barcelona as group winners. Yet Inter went further that season, reaching the last four.
• Inter’s Javier Zanetti and Barcelona pair Carles Puyol and Xavi Hernández played in both matches, with Andrés Iniesta an unused substitute at San Siro.

Match background
• Inter are aiming to lift the European Champion Clubs’ Cup for the first time since their back-to-back triumphs in 1964 and 1965. They can take heart from the fact they have never lost a home semi-final match in the competition.
• This season the Italian titleholders are undefeated at San Siro in the UEFA Champions League, where they have registered three wins and two draws.
• Inter have played in seven previous semi-finals in Europe’s elite club competition. Their record is four victories and three defeats:
2002/03 AC Milan: 0-0 (a), 1-1 (h)
1980/81 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (a), 1-0 (h)
1971/72 Celtic FC: 0-0 (h), 0-0 (a, 5-4 pens)
1966/67 PFC CSKA Sofia: 1-1 (h), 1-1 (a), 1-0 (replay)
1965/66 Real Madrid: 0-1 (a), 1-1 (h)
1964/65 Liverpool FC: 1-3 (a), 3-0 (h)
1963/64 BV Borussia Dortmund: 2-2 (a), 2-0 (h)
• Besides losing two European Cup semi-finals to Barcelona’s arch-rivals Real Madrid, Inter also succumbed to Madrid twice at the semi-final stage of the UEFA Cup in 1984/85 and 1985/86.
• The Nerazzurri achieved the first of their two European Cup successes by defeating Madrid 3-1 in the 1964 final in Vienna.
• Inter have lost just one of 17 home matches against Spanish clubs, recording eight wins and eight draws.
• They have a poor record in two-legged ties against teams from Spain, however, with four victories and nine defeats from 13 contests. The most recent occasion was against Valencia CF in the round of 16 in 2006/07 and brought an away-goals defeat.
• Inter coach Mourinho’s record in UEFA Champions League semi-finals is mixed. He led FC Porto past RC Deportivo La Coruña in 2004 but fell at this stage with Chelsea in 2005 and 2007.
• Mourinho is hoping to lead Inter to the UEFA Champions League six years after winning it with Porto. Only Ernst Happel (Feyenoord 1970, Hamburger SV 1983) and Ottmar Hitzfeld (BV Borussia Dortmund 1997, FC Bayern München 2001) have won the European Cup as coaches of two different clubs. Bayern’s Louis van Gaal, a winner with AFC Ajax in 1995, is also attempting the feat this time round.
• Holders Barcelona have recorded one win and four draws on the road in this term’s UEFA Champions League. Their last away loss in the competition proper, qualifiers excluded, was in the 2007/08 semi-final at Manchester United FC.
• Barcelona have played in ten previous semi-finals and their record is five wins and five defeats:
2008/09 Chelsea FC: 0-0 (h), 1-1 (a)
2007/08 Manchester United FC: 0-0 (h), 0-1 (a)
2005/06 AC Milan: 1-0 (a), 0-0 (h)
2001/02 Real Madrid CF: 0-2 (h), 1-1 (a)
1999/2000 Valencia CF: 1-4 (a), 2-1 (h)
1993/94 FC Porto: 3-0 (h)
1985/86 IFK Göteborg: 0-3 (a), 3-0 (h, 5-4 pens)
1974/75 Leeds United AFC: 1-2 (a), 1-1 (h)
1960/61 Hamburger SV: 1-0 (h), 1-2 (a), 1-0 (replay)
1959/60 Real Madrid CF: 1-3 (a), 1-3 (h)
• Barcelona have failed to score in the last four semi-final home legs.
• The visitors’ coach, Guardiola, was in the Barcelona side that defeated Porto in the 1993/94 semi-final, which was a one-off match. There was no semi-final stage in the 1991/92 competition.
• This is Barcelona’s eighth trip to San Siro where their record is W2 D3 L2.
• Barça visited San Siro for the first leg of their 2005/06 UEFA Champions League semi-final against Milan and achieved a 1-0 success, Ludovic Giuly’s 57th-minute strike the only goal of the tie.
• The Spanish club were twice successful in UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup semi-finals against Serie A sides, overcoming ACF Fiorentina in 1997 and Juventus in 1991.
• Overall Barcelona’s record away to Italian opponents is W5 D6 L4. They have a strong record in two-legged ties against teams from the country, with six victories and three defeats.
• Barcelona lifted the European Cup for the first time after beating Italy’s UC Sampdoria 1-0 in the 1992 final at Wembley. They lost the 1994 final 4-0 to Milan.
• The Blaugrana won last season’s final on Italian soil, beating Manchester United 2-0 in Rome.

Team ties
• Mourinho served as an assistant to the late Sir Bobby Robson and Louis van Gaal at Barcelona from 1996 to 2000.
• As Chelsea manager Mourinho oversaw a 5-4 aggregate defeat of Barcelona in the 2004/05 first knockout round but suffered a 3-2 overall loss at the same stage the next season. The 2006/07 campaign brought another reunion, this time in the group stage, with Chelsea finishing above Barça after a 1-0 home win and 2-2 away draw.
• Guardiola played in Italy between 2001 and 2003, making 24 appearances in Serie A for Brescia Calcio and another four for AS Roma.
• Eto’o spent five seasons with Barcelona from 2004. The Cameroon striker hit 109 goals in 144 league appearances, including 30 last season. In the UEFA Champions League he registered 18 in 43 games, scoring Barcelona’s first goals in the final triumphs of 2006 and 2009.
• Motta made 96 league appearances for Barcelona between 2002 and 2007, scoring six goals. He was an unused substitute in the Blaugrana’s 2-1 UEFA Champions League final defeat of Arsenal FC in 2006.
• Inter forward Diego Milito, 30, could line up against his 29-year-old brother Gabriel of Barcelona. The Argentinian siblings played together for two seasons with Real Zaragoza between 2005 and 2007.
• Only three sets of brothers have played against each other in UEFA club competition: Johannes (Celtic FC) and Atli Edvaldsson (Valur Reykjavík) in the first round of the 1974/75 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup, Ronald (PSV Eindhoven) and Erwin Koeman (KV Mechelen) in the 1988 UEFA Super Cup and John Arne (AS Roma) and Bjørn Helge Riise (Fulham FC) in this season’s UEFA Europa League group stage.
• Quaresma spent 2003/04 at the Camp Nou, making 22 Liga appearances and scoring once.
• During his three-year spell at Inter, Barcelona striker Ibrahimovi? hit 57 goals in 88 Serie A appearances and six in 22 UEFA Champions League games.
• An unused substitute for Barcelona at San Siro in September, Maxwell was also with Inter for three years from 2006 to 2009. The Brazil full-back made 79 appearances in Serie A and scored two goals.
• Thierry Henry scored twice for Arsenal in a 5-1 win at Inter in the 2003/04 group stage. The France forward previously suffered a UEFA Cup semi-final defeat at Inter’s hands when playing for AS Monaco FC in 1996/97.
• Former Barcelona forward Jordi Cruyff – son of Camp Nou favourite Johan – hit the opening goal for Deportivo Alavés when they became the first, and so far only, Spanish team to beat Inter in Milan, prevailing 2-0 in a UEFA Cup fourth-round tie in 2000/01.
• The second leg is in Barcelona on 28 April. The victorious team will advance to the final in Madrid on 22 May where they will play either FC Bayern München or Olympique Lyonnais.

Cup handover ceremony to take place in Madrid on 16 April

The UEFA Champions League trophy will be handed over by UEFA to the host city of Madrid at a special ceremony, which will take place on Friday 16 April 2010, at 13.00 CET, at the Palacio de Cibeles, Madrid’s Town Hall.

UEFA president Michel Platini will hand the trophy to the Mayor of Madrid, Alberto Ruiz Gallardón, for the city to keep and display to the public until this season’s UEFA Champions League final is played at the Estadio Santiago Bernabéu, on Saturday 22 May at 20.45 CET.

The president of the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF), Ángel María Villar Llona, the president of Real Madrid CF, Florentino Pérez Rodríguez, together with the ambassador for this year’s final, former Spanish striker legend Emilio Butragueño, and representatives of last season’s winners FC Barcelona, will be among the renowned personalities attending the event.

A tour will then be conducted with the trophy in the Spanish capital from 17 April to 14 May. The tour will start on 17 April at 12.00 CET at “Puerta del Sol” one of the most emblematic squares in Madrid.

Old Trafford, Manchester
Wednesday 7 April 2010 – 20.45CET (19.45 local time)
Quarter-finals, second leg

Manchester United FC have plenty of work to do if they are to secure a fourth consecutive UEFA Champions League semi-final appearance when FC Bayern München come to Old Trafford.

• Winners in 2008 and runners-up last season, United hope to become the first team since Juventus (1996-98) to appear in three successive finals but they must first overturn a 2-1 deficit against a Bayern side they have never beaten on home soil.
• Sir Alex Ferguson’s side made the perfect start to the quarter-final first leg in Munich, Wayne Rooney volleying in within a minute, yet in a reversal of the teams’ famous meeting in the 1999 final, this time it was Bayern who mounted a sterling late comeback. Franck Ribéry’s free-kick deflected in off Rooney with 13 minutes left and worse was to follow for United as Ivica Oli? pounced two minutes into added time to give the German side a precious lead.
• Bayern have not progressed beyond the last eight since 2001 but will hope to replicate the victory at Old Trafford which helped carry them through to the semi-finals that year – and on their way to an eventual final triumph.

Previous meetings
• The clubs’ most memorable encounter was that 1999 UEFA Champions League final when United famously broke Bayern hearts with added-time goals from substitutes Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjær. Bayern had led for 84 minutes following Mario Basler’s sixth-minute opener.
• Ryan Giggs and Gary Neville were in the United team in Barcelona that evening while Wes Brown was an unused substitute.
• The full lineups were:
Man United: Schmeichel, Neville, Johnsen, Stam, Irwin, Giggs, Beckham, Butt, Blomqvist (Sheringham 67), Cole (Solskjær 81), Yorke.
Bayern: Kahn, Linke, Matthäus (Fink 80) , Kuffour, Babbel, Jeremies, Effenberg, Tarnat, Basler (Salihamidži? 90), Jancker, Zickler (Scholl 71).
• The teams had met in the group stage earlier that same season, playing out two draws. They both advanced at the expense of an FC Barcelona side coached Louis van Gaal, now in charge of Bayern.
• Bayern gained a measure of revenge for their 1999 defeat when they overcame United in the 2000/01 quarter-finals. After a 1-0 win at Old Trafford courtesy of a late Paulo Sérgio strike, the Bavarian club prevailed 2-1 in the return where Giggs hit the visitors’ consolation goal.
• United midfielder Owen Hargreaves – who was dropped from their UEFA Champions League squad in January due to a long-term knee injury – was in the Bayern lineup for the clubs’ most recent encounter at Old Trafford, a 0-0 draw in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League second group stage in March 2002. Giggs and Neville played for United.

Match background
• United have mounted a successful fightback only once after a first-leg defeat in the UEFA Champions League. That came when they routed AS Roma 7-1 after a 2-1 loss in Italy in the 2006/07 quarter-finals.
• They have lost on five other occasions, however, including against Bayern in the 2000/01 tournament:
BV Borussia Dortmund, 1996/97 (0-1 away, 0-1 home)
Bayern 2000/01 (0-1 home, 1-2 away)
Real Madrid CF 2002/03 (1-3 away, 4-3 home)
FC Porto 2003/04 (1-2 away, 1-1 home)
AC Milan 2004/05 (0-1 home, 0-1 away)
• Bayern successfully defended a 2-1 first-leg lead in the last 16 of this season’s competition against ACF Fiorentina, squeezing through on away goals after a 3-2 defeat in the return.
• That was the sixth time running they had advanced in a two-legged European tie after prevailing in the first match. The last time they surrendered a winning position was at this stage of the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League when a 2-1 home victory against Real Madrid was undone by a 2-0 reverse in Spain.
• United surrendered their 23-match unbeaten home run in Europe when losing to Be?ikta? JK in the group stage in November but they rediscovered their winning touch in style in the last 16 with a 4-0 triumph over Milan.
• Michael Carrick hit a 78th-minute winner when United came from behind to defeat VfL Wolfsburg 2-1 on the last occasion a Bundesliga club visited in September.
• In two-legged ties with German teams, United have recorded two wins and three defeats, those defeats coming in their last three ties.
• Bayern’s most recent visit to England brought a 4-2 loss at Chelsea FC that eventually led to a 6-5 aggregate defeat in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League quarter-finals.
• That was one of four quarter-final defeats Bayern have suffered since they last lifted the European Champion Clubs’ Cup (2001/02, 2004/05, 2006/07, 2008/09).
• Bayern have won only twice in 13 attempts in England but they remain unbeaten at Old Trafford after three visits.
• In two-legged ties against English sides. Bayern have registered five wins and five defeats.
• The Bundesliga outfit lifted the European Cup with a 2-0 final triumph against Leeds United AFC in 1975. They lost 1-0 to Aston Villa FC in the 1982 final prior to that 1999 defeat by Man United.

Team ties
• Sir Alex enjoyed a memorable success with Aberdeen FC against Bayern in the 1982/83 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup quarter-finals, winning 3-2 at Pittodrie after a goalless draw in Germany. His Aberdeen side went on to win the trophy and the following year beat Hamburger SV to claim the UEFA Super Cup.
• Bayern’s executive board chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge was in the West Germany side that beat a Scotland side coached by Sir Alex at the 1986 FIFA World Cup.
• Van Gaal has a 100% record in two-legged encounters with English teams having overseen a UEFA Cup victory against Newcastle United FC with AZ Alkmaar in 2006/07 and, a decade ago, guided Barcelona past Chelsea at this stage of the UEFA Champions League.
• The Dutchman’s first taste of European competition as a player brought home and away victories for R. Antwerp FC against Aston Villa in the 1975/76 UEFA Cup.
• Van Gaal’s most recent encounter with Premier League opposition was with Alkmaar when they went down 3-2 at
home to Everton in the 2007/08 UEFA Cup group stage.
• Hargreaves started his career with Bayern and was part of their first-team squad from 2001 to 2007, winning the UEFA Champions League in 2001. He made 145 Bundesliga appearances, scoring five goals.
• Dimitar Berbatov appeared alongside Hans-Jörg Butt in the Bayer 04 Leverkusen side that overcame United in the 2001/02 UEFA Champions League semi-final. Butt also played for Leverkusen against United in the first group stage in 2002/03 when Berbatov scored against his future club, although United won both matches.
• Berbatov made 154 Bundesliga appearances for Leverkusen from 2001 to 2006, scoring 69 goals. He hit three league goals against Bayern, two in a 4-1 home win in August 2004 and another the following August this time in a 5-2 home loss.
• Mark van Bommel played with Ji-Sung Park in the PSV Eindhoven team beaten by Milan in the 2004/05 UEFA Champions League semi-finals.
• Daniel Van Buyten faced United twice during a loan stay at Manchester City FC in 2003/04. The Belgian was in the side that lost 4-2 at Old Trafford in the FA Cup in February 2004 before a 4-1 home league triumph the following
month.
• Neville, Rio Ferdinand and Paul Scholes played in England’s 5-1 win against Germany in Munich in a 2002 World
Cup qualifier in September 2001. Their injured team-mate Michael Owen hit a hat-trick that night.
• Ribéry played alongside Patrice Evra in the France team overwhelmed 4-1 by the Netherlands at UEFA EURO 2008.
Arjen Robben scored the third Dutch goal while Edwin van der Sar was in goal for the Netherlands.
• Portugal winger Nani faced Miroslav Klose, Philipp Lahm and Bastian Schweinsteiger in that same tournament – Klose and Schweinsteiger scored in Germany’s 3-2 quarter-final win.
• Oli? and Danijel Pranji? have had mixed fortunes in England with their national team Croatia. They suffered a 5-1 reverse at Wembley in World Cup qualifying last September, with Rooney scoring, yet also featured in a 3-2 win there in November 2007 that ended England’s hopes in UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying, Oli? getting the second goal.
• Anatoliy Tymoshchuk played at Wembley for Ukraine last April in a 2-1 defeat by England in 2010 World Cup qualifying. Ferdinand and Rooney featured for England.

United’s record in penalty shoot-outs in UEFA club competitions is:
6-5 v Chelsea, 2007/08 UEFA Champions League final
3-4 v FC Torpedo Moskva, 1992/93 UEFA Cup first round
4-5 v FC Fehérvár, 1984/85 UEFA Cup quarter-finals

Bayern’s record is:
5-4 v Valencia CF, 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final
9-8 v PAOK FC, 1983/84 UEFA Cup second round
4-3 v Åtvidaberg FF, 1973/74 European Champion Clubs’ Cup first round

The victorious team will take on the winner of the contest between Olympique Lyonnais and FC Girondins de Bordeaux in the semi-finals.