English clubs handed tough task

England's chances of producing three semi-finalists in the Champions League for the third successive season were dented on Friday by a tough-looking last 16 draw.

Holders Manchester United were paired with Italian champions and Serie A leaders Inter Milan while Premier League leaders Liverpool take on nine-times champions Real Madrid after the draw made at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

Last year's runners-up Chelsea were paired with Juventus, managed by former Chelsea boss Claudio Ranieri, while Arsenal, finalists in 2006, play AS Roma in a third Anglo-Italian clash.

The Manchester United tie will see another former Chelsea boss, Jose Mourinho, returning to face Premiership opposition in his new role in charge of Inter.

"Obviously Jose has put us out of the competition before," said United's communications director Phil Townsend in reference to Mourinho's success at the same stage in 2004 with eventual European champions Porto.

"But equally we put Inter out in 1999 when we went on to win the tournament so maybe that's a good omen for us."

Real Madrid's meeting with Liverpool will mark only the second time that the Spanish nine-time European champions have met the English five-time winners in the competition.

Their only previous encounter came in the final of the 1981 European Cup with Liverpool winning through 1-0.

Rooney’s 100th seals derby

Manchester United overcome a late surge from City to prevail 1-0; Cristiano Ronaldo is sent off for a hand ball

Cristiano Ronaldo was sent off for the third time in his Manchester United career as Wayne Rooney’s 100th goal in club football sealed a 1-0 victory for Sir Alex Ferguson’s men against Manchester City at Eastlands on Sunday. Rooney’s goal — his first in seven games — settled the 150th meeting between the Manchester neighbours and cemented United in third spot in the Premier League.

But United were forced to play the final twenty-one minutes with ten men after Ronaldo was dismissed for handling the ball from Rooney’s corner — his second booking in the space of nine minutes.

With five other players booked, United now face an FA fine for failing to control their players, but Ferguson will not be concerned by that having sealed a crucial victory. City hadn’t landed back in Manchester until early on Friday morning following their UEFA Cup tie against Schalke in Germany, and United went into this game with the advantage of having had an extra two days to prepare.

The extra freshness within the United ranks showed in the first half as the European champions dominated possession and created the best chances. Not for the first time this season, though, Ferguson’s team failed to capitalise on their early dominance and, just as happened at Liverpool, Everton and Arsenal earlier this campaign, United struggled to kill off their bitter rivals.

The visitors could have gone ahead as early as the eighth minute when City keeper Joe Hart fumbled a Rooney shot, but Darren Fletcher failed to convert the loose ball from six yards.

Late goals send Milan through in UEFA Cup

Late goals from Ronaldinho and Filippo Inzaghi salvaged a 2-2 draw for AC Milan against English FA Cup winners Portsmouth and took the seven times European champions into the last 32 of the UEFA Cup on Thursday.

Milan were trailing 2-0 until Brazilian Ronaldinho curled in a superb freekick after 84 minutes and then Inzaghi, who had hit the woodwork three times, showed fine control to slot home the equaliser in the second minute of stoppage time.

Carlo Ancelotti's side top Group E with seven points from three matches and are guaranteed a place in the knockout phase with a game to spare.

Former winners CSKA Moscow, Manchester City and Ligue 1 strugglers St Etienne joined Milan as the first four teams to qualify for the last 32.

Portsmouth, roared on by the majority of a fervent 20,000 crowd shoehorned into the south coast club's Fratton Park home, had stunned Milan with second-half goals from Younes Kaboul and Nwankwo Kanu.

Kaboul powerfully headed home Glenn Johnson's inviting cross after 62 minutes and 11 minutes later Nigeria striker Kanu, whose FA Cup final winner in May secured Portsmouth's place in Europe, hooked in another Johnson cross from close range.

Ancelotti sent on Ronaldinho and Pato for Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko and it was the former who got Milan back into the game with an unstoppable swirling freekick past David James.

With time running out, a hopeful ball into the danger area was taken down with aplomb by Inzaghi who then found the bottom corner of the net.

Kaka targets English switch amid Man City link

AC Milan playmaker Kaka wants to play in the English Premier League and has been speaking to fellow Brazilians Robinho and Elano about Manchester City.

City's wealthy Abu Dhabi owners have been linked with a move for 26-year-old Kaka.

"I like very much the Premier League," the world player of the year said ahead of Thursday's UEFA Cup match at Portsmouth. "It's a very tough championship, but there are a lot of big players and a lot of big teams, so now I think it's the best championship in the world."

"So, one day maybe, I don't know when, but it would be great to play in England."

Sheik Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan broke the British transfer record to sign Robinho in September when the member of the United Arab Emirates' royal family led the Abu Dhabi United Group's purchase of City.

When asked about a move to City, Kaka said: "I have a lot of friends that are playing there, so I watch some games. I speak with Robinho and Elano sometimes about Manchester City."

Inter Milan meets Napoli in Serie A after midweek loss in Europe

Inter Milan coach Jose Mourinho has publicly accepted the blame for his team's home loss to Panathinaikos. Now, he must motivate his players for Sunday's Serie A match against Napoli or risk increasing his culpability.

"I accept the blame for this defeat and now we have to look forward," Mourinho said Wednesday after his team lost 1-0 to Panathinaikos in the Champions League group stage.

After a slow start, Inter has opened a three-point lead over city rival AC Milan in the Serie A, but the team has won only its first of five games in the Champions League. Despite Wednesday's loss, Inter qualified for the last 16 of the Champions League.

Mourinho will be looking to make sure his team's lackluster Champions League performances aren't transferred to the Serie A.

Napoli, four points behind Inter to be tied for third, has been one of the biggest surprises after finishing eighth last season, 35 points back from Inter. Napoli has seen several games slip away this year in the last minutes otherwise it could be even higher.

Last week, Cagliari scored in the final minute of injury time to draw a game that Napoli had controlled almost from the start. Coach Edoardo Reja berated his players, saying their youth was also partly to blame for a similar result against AC Milan earlier.

Mourinho, for his part, is likely to continue experimenting until he finds a winning combination. He has had a different starting lineup in each of Inter's 13 league games this year. On Wednesday, he started with two wingers and then later fielded three strikers.

Also Sunday, AS Roma hosts Fiorentina. Roma started slowly, dropping to just one point clear of relegation, but the team has played well lately including a 3-1 Champions League win at CFR Cluj and a 3-0 victory at Lecce last weekend in the Serie A.

Captain Francesco Totti scored in both games and appears to be finding form after injuries hampered his start to the season.

"I said this was a quality team and I have been proven correct," Roma coach Luciano Spalletti said. "The crisis is over. In the game against Cluj, I saw some things in the team that give me reason to hope. We can still improve very much."

Roma is 16 points behind Inter with a game in hand, but Totti and teammates are expected to find a demoralized Fiorentina after it was eliminated from the Champions League on Tuesday.

AC Milan, which travels to Palermo, plays Portsmouth later Thursday in the UEFA Cup.

Juventus hosts Reggina on Saturday looking to rebound from last week's loss to Inter and an uninspired 0-0 draw with Zenit St. Petersburg in the Champions League. Juventus had already qualified for the last 16 with two games to spare.

Also, it's: Atalanta vs. Lazio; Cagliari vs. Sampdoria; Genoa vs. Bologna; Siena vs. Torino; Udinese vs. Chievo Verona; and Lecce vs. Catania.

Portsmouth 2-2 AC Milan

Filippo Inzaghi struck a late equaliser to break Portsmouth's hearts and send AC Milan into the Uefa Cup's last 32.

Inzaghi hit the post and the bar early on, while Peter Crouch was guilty of missing three excellent chances.

Younes Kaboul headed in Glen Johnson's pin-point cross to put Pompey ahead and Kanu doubled the lead from close range.

Inzaghi hit the woodwork again with a diving header, before Ronaldinho scored with a superb free-kick and Inzaghi's toe-poke snatched a draw.

Talk before the game had been that Milan were not relishing the prospect of a wintry evening at Fratton Park.

And it looked like Portsmouth were going to pull off a famous victory until Inzaghi's late, late intervention.

Not that anyone could really begrudge the striker his reward for a performance of real menace.

The former Italy international almost opened the scoring when he latched on to Andriy Shevchenko's free-kick, sending a left-footed shot against the foot of the post.

Inzaghi hit the woodwork again when he raced on to Gennaro Gattuso's pass and lofted the ball over David James and against the top of the bar.

In between those chances for Milan, Crouch should have done better when volleying horribly off target after being picked out by Kanu's cross into the box.

It was to be the story of the night for Crouch, who later headed back into the box with the goal gaping, sent a diving header wide and mistimed an overhead kick.

Pompey, though, were at least creating chances and certainly did not look overawed.

Following a slick passing move, they fashioned another opening, but the angle proved too tight for Glen Little to get his volley on target.

Aside from a couple of long-range efforts from world player of the year Kaka, Milan were unable to threaten.

And it was no great surprise when Pompey broke the deadlock though Kaboul, who rose between two Milan defenders to thump home a header.

Nine minutes later, the home side doubled their lead - and again it was Johnson who was the provider, this time sending in a cross for Kanu to convert.

But rather than folding, Milan came back strongly, with Inzaghi denied once again by the frame of the goal from a diving header.

On came Ronaldinho, who quickly made an impression when he curled in an exquisite 25-yard free-kick to give Milan a lifeline.

Luca Antonini went close with a low, skidding shot as the visitors searched for an equaliser, which they got when Inzaghi struck after his sublime first touch set him up to earn his side a vital point.

It was a hugely disappointing end for Pompey and their fans, but the club still has hopes of making the last 32.

They need to pick up points from their remaining games against Germany's Wolfsburg - away next Thursday - and Holland's Heerenveen to join Milan in the group's top three.


Portsmouth manager Tony Adams:

"The boys are feeling flat in there. They thought they had won it. But I'm proud of them tonight.

"This was the best performance I've seen from us in a long time. And we can still say we are four games unbeaten now, including against Milan.

"We are struggling to put teams to bed, but they (Milan) have some excellent players. If you switch off, they punish you.

"We can work on picking teams up from set plays but it was a fantastic free-kick. But I was very entertained by my players tonight.

"We've given ourselves a chance but we will still have to get over this. The boys are really upset they didn't hang on to win."

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti:

"Ronaldinho's free-kick changed the face of the game but we almost lost hope. The reaction had to be good and it was, but you don't often get the opportunity from 2-0 down.

"We were a little lucky. We played quite well in the first half but it became a bit more difficult in the second half after they took the lead.

"Inzaghi deserved his goal. He was unlucky to twice hit a post but we still had to get the break to recover.

"(Portsmouth's) performance did not surprise me. I think they can still go through to the third round in the UEFA Cup with us."


Portsmouth: James, Johnson, Kaboul, Distin, Belhadj, Little (Mvuemba 66), Diop, Hughes, Traore, Crouch, Kanu (Davis 81).
Subs Not Used: Ashdown, Hreidarsson, Pamarot, Wilson.

Booked: Hughes.

Goals: Kaboul 62, Kanu 73.

AC Milan: Dida, Zambrotta, Favalli, Senderos, Antonini, Gattuso (Seedorf 65), Emerson, Flamini, Kaka (Alexandre Pato 74), Inzaghi, Shevchenko (Ronaldinho 74).
Subs Not Used: Kalac, Kaladze, Pirlo, Bonera.

Booked: Antonini.

Goals: Ronaldinho 84, Inzaghi 90+2.

Att: 20,403

Ref: Serge Gumienny.