Champions League report Old acquaintances meet again The semifinal clashes in this season's Champions League have joined old foes who have run against one another many times in the European competitions. Manchester United and Barcelona have played seven games in the UEFA's competitions while Liverpool and Chelsea have met on six occasions, all of them in the last three years. United and Barcelona have a very evenly balanced score with two wins for each team and three draws. The Red Devils have been a bit more successful as they achieved a better score on two occasions, with one tie and one loss. Their first encounter took place in the Cup Winners' Cup quarterfinals in 1983/84, when United performed a sensational comeback against total favorites that Barcelona were at the time with Diego Maradona and Bernd Schuster in their ranks. The first leg on Camp Nou ended 2-0 for the Catalans, but a young Mark Hughes helped United towards an unlikely 3-0 at Old Trafford in the return match. After surviving infamous episodes at Barcelona and Bayern, Hughes returned to Manchester in 1988, in time to lead his old club to another unexpected triumph. With two goals the Welshman knocked down Cruyff's Barcelona in the 1991 Cup Winners' Cup finals. Hristo Stoichkov and Romário gave Barça a wonderful 4-0 win over United in the 1995 Champions League group stage, which ultimately cost the English side a place in the quarterfinals. Finally, in 1998/99 these two teams played two spectacular 3-3 draws in the group stage, but these scores favoured United, who went through together with Bayern, and in the end beat no other than Bayern in the finals at Camp Nou. In the previous three seasons Liverpool topped Chelsea twice in Champions Cup semifinals and between those matches other two encounters ended with goalless draws. Amazingly, in the six games only three goals were scored, two for Liverpool and one in Chelsea's favour. One of these goals, scored by Liverpool's Luis García in 2005, was in fact illegal, which makes the two teams' scoring output even more miserable. Quarterfinals 2007/08 Schalke vs Barcelona 0-1 0-1 Roma vs Manchester Utd. 0-2 0-1 Arsenal vs Liverpool 1-1 2-4 Fenerbahce vs Chelsea 2-1 0-2 Previous matches Manchester Utd. vs Barcelona 1st 2nd 1998/99 Champions League 3-3 3-3 1994/95 Champions League 0-4 2-2 1990/91 Cup Winners' Cup 2-1 1983/84 Cup Winners' Cup 0-2 3-0 Liverpool vs Chelsea 1st 2nd 2004/05 Champions League 0-0 1-0 2005/06 Champions League 0-0 0-0 2006/07 Champions League 0-1 1-0 4-1 (pen) Copyright Ozren Podnar and Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

UEFA Cup report ">Adios Getafe, only big guns remain After all, the UEFA Cup semifinal setup will be worthy of the illustrious tradition of this competition. After the elimination of Getafe, whose best-ever Spanish league standing was last year's nineth, only the teams worthy of European glory have remained. The big hit of the current edition are the Russian champions Zenit, who kicked out Villarreal, Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen in the past three rounds. Led by the respectable Dutch coach in Dirk Advocaaat and a handful of Russian internationals, Zenit reached their first European semifinals, and it is possible that they have not said their last word although their next opposition are Bayern. The ease with which they demolished Leverkusen Bayern, by far the winningest team of the last four, had not seen a semifinal action since 2001, when they eliminated Real Madrid on the way to their fourth Champions League title. Despite a certain anonimity on the continental field after that achievement, Bayern are still one of the world soccer giants with shelves packed with silverware: four Champions Leagues, Cup Winners' Cup. UEFA Cup, Supercup and two Intercontinental Cups. Coach Ottmar Hitzfeld says he sees Bayern in the finals, but after toiling so much against a modest side like Getafe, the Bavarians had better approach their next obstacle with more humility. Fiorentina and Rangers own just one European trophy, a Cup Winners' Cup each. The Italians won the first edition of the competition in 1961, beating who else but Rangers by 2-0 and 2-1. They were on the losing side in the following year's finals against Atlético Madrid and in 1990 they lost a UEFA Cup finals against Juventus. Their last appearance in the semifinal stage came eleven years ago when Ronaldo's and Figo's Barcelone proved too powerful for the Violets. Rangers collected their only continental honour in 1972, after losing two previous finals in 1961 and 1967. In the scandalous final held in Barcelona thousands of Rangers' fans fought with the police, which cost the club one year suspension. After that tarnished triumph, the Blues came close to a final game only once, when they finished second in the semifinal group of the 1992/93 Champions League, behind eventual winners Marseille. Since this year's finals is to be played in Glasgow, Rangers believe the trophy is destined to end up in their hands, but before that happens Fiorentina's in-form man, Adrian Mutu, will have to give his approval. UEFA Cup quarterfinals 2007/08 Bayer L. vs Zenit 1-4 1-0 Bayern vs Getafe 1-1 3-3 (a.e.t.) Fiorentina – PSV 1-1 2-0 Rangers – Sporting L. 0-0 2-0 Copyright Ozren Podnar and Soccerphile Bet with Bet 365 World Soccer News Soccer betting tips Soccer Books & DVDs Tags Soccer News soccer football J-League K-League Betting

German football legend Lothar Matthäus appears to have found a new employer, and will be joining Israeli side Maccabi Netanya this summer.

Juventus dealt a potentially fatal blow to 10-man AC Milan´s Champions League hopes with a 3-2 win in blockbuster match in Turin on Saturday.

Rapid Wien are close to winning this year's T-Mobile Bundesliga in Austria, after a surprising defeat for Red Bull Salzburg at SV Mattersburg.

The championship battle in Turkey is anything but over as Galatasatay pushed Fenerbahçe off the top spot, at least for one day.

Portsmouth missed a chance to close the gap in the race for a UEFA Cup place as they were held to a goalless draw by Newcastle on Saturday.

Metz´s slender hopes of playing first division football for the second straight season disappeared on Saturday with a 2-1 loss to Marseille seeing them slip through the relegation trap door.

Even Lionel Messi´s return from injury failed to reignite Barcelona´s title bid as Frank Rijkaard watched his side draw 2-2 with Recreativo Huelva on Saturday as they continue to gift the championship to rivals Real Madrid.

Dutch legend Johan Cruyff thinks that Ronaldinho's imminent departure from FC Barcelona is probably the best solution. The former player and manager also took a moment to criticize the Catalan crowd.

Liverpool boss Rafa Benitez has ordered his players to win the battle for fourth place in the Premier League before thinking about their Champions League semi-final showdown with Chelsea.

The feud which once simmered between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger has long since come off the boil, but the Manchester United manager would still find it hard to suppress a smile if he inflicted a final ignominy on his old rival on Sunday.

Gordon Strachan´s long-term future as Celtic manager will be in serious doubt if the Parkhead side fail to avenge last week´s defeat when they face Motherwell on Sunday.

Frank Rijkaard can do nothing right at the moment with Barcelona fans jeering their manager´s decisions even though he has guided them to the Champions League semi-finals.

Just over a decade ago, with the likes of George Weah in attack and David Ginola on the wing, Paris Saint Germain ranked as one of Europe´s top clubs.

The Championship may already be decided in Portugal, the battle for second place continues. Benfica may lose that second place to Vitoria Guimaraes after suffering a 0-3 defeat on Friday.

The feud which once simmered between Sir Alex Ferguson and Arsene Wenger has long since come off the boil, but the Manchester United manager would still find it hard to suppress a smile if he inflicted a final ignominy on his old rival on Sunday.

Six of Serie A´s top seven teams face off this weekend with AC Milan´s trip to Juventus the highlight of a blockbuster programme.

Arsenal´s fading Premier League title hopes will be put to the sternest of tests this weekend when they face leaders Manchester United at Old Trafford.