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Champions League draw: English clubs hope to avoid each other

LONDON: English football hopes that the four Premier League clubs who have made it to the quarterfinal draw will avoid each other on Friday and maybe all make it to the semifinals.

But that would mean one of Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea or Arsenal facing Barcelona.

Former champion Bayern Munich and FC Porto and 2006 semifinalist Villarreal are the other teams going into Friday’s draw at UEFA headquarters at Nyon, Switzerland.

But the Premier League clubs, who could meet each other in the first unseeded round of the draw, are eyeing up a repeat of last season’s achievement when three of them made it to the semifinals.

Joint favourite

Defending champion Man United and Barcelona go into the draw as the bookmakers’ joint favourites at 5-2 and neutral fans might see that as a great final in Rome on May 27 with the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov and Carlos Tevez taking on Lionel Messi, Thierry Henry and Samuel Eto’o.

Although the English champion has seen its Premier League advantage cut to four points, Barcelona is six points clear in the Spanish league.

But Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard, whose team’s odds are 6-1 with William Hill, said that the other seven should be scared of his team after the Reds beat Real Madrid 4-0 in the first knockout round last week and followed that up with a 4-1 Premier League victory at United.

A five-time winner of the trophy, Liverpool has become used to facing fellow English clubs in the Champions League having played Chelsea three different times and also knocking out Arsenal last season.

Man United ousted Italian champion Inter Milan in the previous round and Chelsea knocked out Juventus which means there are no Italian sides left in the competition.

The first legs of the quarterfinals are on April 7-8 and the returns on April 14-15. — AP

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