Beckham v Man U and Mourinho v Chelsea Top Wish List

The draw for the last 16 of the UEFA Champions League will be made tomorrow and there are several mouth watering possibilities that have set tongues wagging. In the draw, one side who won their qualifying group will play a side who finished second in the group.

Sides who came from the same group cannot meet, and sides from the same country are to be kept apart for this round. So Fiorentina, who won Group E, cannot play Lyon who finished second in that group, or fellow Italian sides Inter Milan and AC Milan. They will draw therefore one of Bayern Munich, CSKA Moscow, Porto, Stuttgart or Olympiakos, none of which will faze them unduly. They are the only side whose possibilities are reduced as low as just five potential opponents. Given who they can play, they look a good bet for a quarter final place at this point.

Beckham Could Make an Emotional Return to Old Trafford

Of the sides in the second pot, Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan seem to be the strongest and the group winners will be keen to avoid them, with only Fiorentina and Barcelona assured of that. That leaves the real possibility that he will be paired with his former club Chelsea prompting an emotionally charged return to Stamford Bridge.

Champions Barcelona will be watching with interest from Abu Dhabi where they are about to contest the World Club Cup final against Estudiantes. They are guaranteed to avoid Inter but there are no Spanish sides in Pot 2, so could get anyone from the tricky Porto to the less threatening VFB Stutgart or Olympiakos.

Beaten finalists last year Manchester United cannot draw CSKA Moscow but both the other English sides won their group so they can draw any of the other seven, including AC Milan for whom David Beckham will be playing by then. Beckham’s return to Manchester United is a marketing man’s dream although Sir Alex Ferguson will see greater threats in the Milan line up than his former charge.