- Title: SWITZERLAND: REACTIONS TO EUROPEAN DRAWS.
- Date: 24th March 2000
- Summary: NYON, SWITZERLAND (MARCH 24, 2000) REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL 1. EXTERIORS UEFA HEADQUARTERS 2. CHELSEA MANAGING DIRECTOR COLIN HUTCHINSON SHAKING HANDS WITH BARCELONA REPRESENTATIVE AMADOR BERNABEU 3. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHELSEA MANAGING DIRECTOR COLIN HUTCHINSON SAYING "We thought it was tough when we first came out against Bayern Munich and it got worse with Barcelona. It will be two great matches. We are obviously the underdogs, and we are very proud and previleged to be playing F.C. Barcelona." 4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CHELSEA MANAGING DIRECTOR COLIN HUTCHINSON SAYING "You always expect difficult matches and when you are amongst the top eight clubs in europe they are all very tough and fair games but we are certainly looking forward for them." 5. (SOUNDBITE) (Spanish) BARCELONA REPRESENTATIVE AMADOR BERNABEU SAYING "This is how football is. We had 66 percent to play against a Spanish team but we got Chelsea. I beleive the result is very good to us. If we analyse the results of the draw we can have either Bayern or Manchester at the finals. Now we are relieved. We all know Chelsea is an important team but at the quarter-finals we are all good teams. The english way of playing is different from the spanish one but Barcelona will know how to play." 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASKED HIS REACTION THAT CHELSEA LOST THEIR 42-YEAR-OLD HOME RECORD IN EUROPE HUTCHINSON SAYS "That is in the past. It is a great record but all records are there to be broken and now we start again... let's see if we can do it again." 7. WIDE OF ROOM WITH REPRESENTATIVES 8. (SOUNDBITE) (Italian) S.S. LAZIO VICE-PRESIDENT MASSIMO CRAGNOTTI SAYING "Valencia is a good team. Lazio has all the possibilties to win. We will then play against either Chelsea or Barcelona but let's see." 9. JOURNALISTS 10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) MANCHESTER UNITED ASSISTANT SECRETARY KEN RAMSDEN SAYING "We are delighted to play Real Madrid, great rivalry, great friendship. We dealt with them in the 50's and 60's. They were our first European friends so we are really looking forwards to go back to Bernabeu (stadium). Bobby Charlton, our director, will be specially pleased as he played against them in those games. so he'll be delighted, as we all are, to be renewing old friendships. Two big games, maybe it's a pitch its a quarter-final but you're just happy to be there and involved in the games anyway." (REPORTER ASKS, ARE YOU OPTIMISTIC? HE REPLIES) "Yes, always optimistic." 11. JOURNALISTS 12. (SOUNDBITE) (German) BAYERN MUNCHEN VICE-PRESIDENT KARLHEINZ RUMMENIGGE SAYING "We have to play against Porto. Maybe the advantage is that we have to play against them first over there but at this level all teams are of good quality. We have to be fully concentrated and deeply engaged." 13. VARIOUS OF FC PORTO PRESIDENT PINTO DA COSTA SPEAKING TO REPRESENTATIVES OF BAYERN MUNCHEN 14. WIDE OF ROOM WITH REPRESENTATIVES DURING UEFA CUP 15. LENS REPRESENTATIVES 16. GALATASARAY SPORTS DIRECTOR METE RAZLIKLI WATCHING DRAW 17. GALATASARAY SPORTS DIRECTOR METE RAZLIKLI TALKING TO LEEDS UNITED OPERATIONS DIRECTOR DAVID SPENCER 18. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ASKED HIS REACTION OF THE DRAW LEEDS UNITED OPERATIONS DIRECTOR DAVID SPENCER SAYS "As far as Leeds United is concerned we are delighted first of all for English football that Arsenal and Leeds have not been drawn together and we are also delighted that we have got as far as the semi-finals and more than happy to be going to Galatasaray and that we have been drawn away first. 19. (SOUNDBITE) (English) LEEDS' DAVID SPENCER SAYING "That's two games between now and the finals and clearly we want to win them both. If we get to the semi-finals in an European competition is never going to be easy but we are looking forward to it. I am very positive, whatever happens next, happens next" 20. (SOUNDBITE) (Turkish) GALATASARAY SPORTS DIRECTOR METE RAZLIKLI SAYING "Our club, Galatasaray, has come to the semi-finals. It is not important who we will play against, the important thing is that we reach the finals" 20. PHOTOGRAPHERS TAKING PICTURES OF ARSENAL VICE-CHAIRMAN DAVID DEIN WITH LENS ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL DIRECTOR FRANCIS COLLADO 21. (SOUNDBITE) (English) ARSENAL VICE-CHAIRMAN DAVID DEIN SAYING "We are good friends. Half our team are French so... we played against each other already last season, which was a good match, two good matches. We tragically lost at home. A disaster for us" 22. (SOUNDBITE) (French) LENS ADMINISTRATIVE AND FINANCIAL DIRECTOR FRANCIS COLLADO SAYING "All three teams wanted to play against Lens. For us to play against Arsenal, who we had a memorable victory in Wembley, is very good. 23. CLOSE UP OF CUP OF UEFA CUP Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 8th April 2000 13:00
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- Location: NYON, SWITZERLAND
- Country: Switzerland
- Reuters ID: LVABRH5B5MXLQVZGV8L9PJAVXALE
- Story Text: Defending champions Manchester United will renew their
rivalry with Real Madrid, the greatest European campaigners,
in an epic quarter-final between the last two winners of the
Champions League next month.
The draw for the quarter-finals and semifinals of
Europe's elite competition on Friday (March 24) produced a
second battle between English and Spanish clubs, with Chelsea
facing Barcelona.
Those two ties keep alive the chance of the first
all-English or all-Spanish Champions League final at the Stade
de France in Paris on May 24.
The other quarter-finals see Spain's third
quarter-finalist Valencia face Lazio of Italy and Porto of
Portugal play last season's runners-up Bayern Munich, a repeat
of the 1987 European Cup final which Porto won 2-1.
Manchester United, Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Lazio, the
four second phase group winners, will be away in the first
legs on April 4/5 and at home in the returns on April 18/19.
Manchester United and Real Madrid, who have won the Cup a
record seven times, have met twice in European competition.
Manchester United assistant secretary Ken Ramsden said:
"We are delighted to play Real Madrid, great rivalry, great
friendship.We dealt with them in the 50's and 60's.They were
our first European friends so we are really looking forwards
to go back to Bernabeu."
Due to a technicality in the draw, Barcelona were
originally paired with Porto and Chelsea with Bayern Munich.
But because Porto and Barcelona met in the second group
phase and could not play each other in the quarter-finals, the
matches were re-allocated with Chelsea paired with Barcelona
and Porto with Bayern.
Chelsea's managing director Colin Hutchinson said: "We
thought it was tough when we first came out against Bayern
Munich and it got worse with Barcelona.It will be two great
matches.We are obviously the underdogs, and we are very proud
and previleged to be playing F.C.Barcelona."
Barcelona director Amador Bernabeu said: "I believe the
result is very good to us.If we analyse the results of the
draw we can have either Bayern or Manchester at the finals.
Now we are relieved.We all know Chelsea is an important team
but at the quarter-finals we are all good teams.The English
way of playing is different from the Spanish one but Barcelona
will know how to play."
Chelsea have met Barcelona once before, losing an Inter
Cities Fairs Cup semifinal playoff 5-0 after a 2-2 draw on
aggregate in 1965-66.
Bayern Munich will be eagerly awaiting their quarter-final
with Porto for the chance to avenge their shock defeat in the
1987 European Cup final.
Bayern Munich vice-president Karl-Heinz Rummenigge, who
played for Bayern in that match, said: "We have to play
against Porto.Maybe the advantage is that we have to play
against them first over there but at this level all teams are
of good quality.We have to be fully concentrated and deeply
engaged."
The draw also guarantees that one team who have never
reached the semifinals of the competition will do so this
season -- either Valencia or Lazio.
Lazio did superbly on Wednesday when they came from behind
to beat Chelsea 2-1 and become the first team to win a
European tie in 42 years at Stamford Bridge.
Speaking about Chelsea's record being broken, Hutchinson
said, "That is in the past.It is a great record but all
records are there to be broken and now we start again...let's
see if we can do it again."
That win gave them top spot in Group D and Massimo
Cragnotti, Lazio's vice-president, was pleased with the draw.
"Valencia is a good team.Lazio has all the possibilties
to win.We will then play against either Chelsea or Barcelona
but let's see."
Lazio have been linked with signing Valencia's Claudio
Lopez this season but Cragnotti said nothing would now be
decided on that until the end of the season.
The draw for the semifinals was also made and means there
cannot be a repeat of last season's final between Manchester
United and Bayern which United won 2-1 with two late goals.
United and Bayern will face each other in the semis if
they win their quarter-final ties.
The prospect of an all-English UEFA Cup final remained
alive after Arsenal and Leeds United were kept apart in the
semifinal draw on Friday.
Leeds were drawn to face Galatasaray of Turkey next month
while Arsenal, installed as 5-4 favourites to win the cup,
will meet Racing Lens of France in the other semifinal.
The draw has also kept apart the two teams -- Galatasaray
and Arsenal -- who were originally in the Champions League
this season but dropped down into the UEFA Cup after failing
to get past the first phase of Europe's premier competition.
There has only been one other occasion when two English
clubs contested a European final -- in 1972 when Tottenham
Hotspur beat Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 on aggregate in the
first UEFA Cup final.
None of the four semifinalists has won the UEFA Cup
before.Arsenal (1970) and Leeds (1971) were the last two
winners of the old Inter Cities Fairs Cup, replaced by the
UEFA Cup in 1972.
David Dein, vice-chairman of Arsenal, said the London side
wanted revenge for their defeat by Lens in the Champions
League last season.
After the teams drew 1-1 at Lens, the French side beat
Arsenal 1-0 at Wembley Stadium, a defeat that effectively cost
Arsenal a place in the later stages of the competition.
"We're good friends - half our team is French after all,"
said Dein.
"We played last season and had two good matches.We drew
one and tragically for us lost at home in the return which was
a disaster for us.Of course we want revenge but we have a
cordial relationship with Lens."
Francis Collado, financial director at Lens said, "All
three teams wanted to play against Lens.For us to play
against Arsenal, who we had a memorable victory in Wembley, is
very good."
The matches will be played on April 6 and 20 with
Galatasaray and Arsenal at home in the first legs.
The final is scheduled to be played in the Parken Stadium,
Copenhagen, on May 17 -- which could be a lucky omen for
Arsenal as they won the European Cup Winners Cup there in
1994.
Leeds operations manager David Spencer said, "We are
delighted first of all for English football that Arsenal and
Leeds have not been drawn together and we are also delighted
that we have got as far as the semi-finals
and more than happy to be going to Galatasaray and very happy
that we were drawn away first."
Mete Razlikli, technical director at Galatasaray who have
reached a European semifinal for the first time in 11 years,
was also pleased.
"We did not mind who we drew in the semifinals.If we win
the trophy it will be the first time that national champions
will have won the UEFA Cup."
The competition has been dominated by Italian clubs for
the last few seasons with all-Italian finals in 1990, 1991,
1995 and 1998.
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