English trio have it all to do to conquer Europe

The metamorphosis of the Champions' League to the European Cup may not exactly match the beauty and wonder of the caterpillar into the butterfly, but the draw for the last eight knockout stage of the competition drew some gasps of excitement when it emerged in its entirety yesterday morning in Switzerland.

Bayern Munich versus Manchester United, a repeat of the dramatic 1999 final in Barcelona, provoked most comment. But Galatasaray against Real Madrid, the UEFA Cup champions against the European champions, is another beguiling tie. The winners of these ties will meet in the semi-final. Bookmakers' odds say that a Purple Emperor will appear from this quartet.

Not that the other half of the draw is unappealing, particularly for the English and Spanish. Arsenal v Valencia is a reawakening of the 1980 UEFA Cup final, though of rather more significance is that Valencia are last season's beaten finalists. And Leeds United's reward for upstaging the likes of Barcelona, AC Milan and Lazio during their thrilling continental adventure is a trip back to Spain to face Deportivo La Coruna. An Arsenal-Leeds semi-final is a possibility.

To add to the sense of domestic anticipation, once the Champions League had spawned its enticing knockout, the UEFA Cup did its best to match its more prestigious relative by coughing up Barcelona versus Liverpool as one of its semi-finals. With not a single Italian team in the last eight of either competition, there is now a virtual mini-tournament between England's Premiership and Spain's La Liga to see who reigns Europe.

With all three of the Premiership's Champions League representatives having finished second in their respective groups, and with each of the three Spanish clubs having won theirs, this was always a likelihood. Yet the first two names drawn, Manchester United's and Bayern's, stole a lot of the Anglo-Spanish thunder.

By Alex Ferguson's admission United have under-achieved in Europe this season, only ensuring qualification from a relatively easy group by defeating Sturm Graz at Old Trafford on Tuesday night. Ferguson could hardly be blamed if he saw the tie with Bayern as United's punishment for the greatest sin in his eyes - sloppiness - in the earlier rounds. There was also the prospect of revenge motivating Sammy Kuffour and co.

Ferguson chose, however, to look at things rather more positively. "The fact that we finished in second place in our group meant we knew it was always going to be difficult anyway," he said. "But we've got experience of playing against them and it's not as if we're going into uncharted territory. It has a flavour to it because it rekindles memories of what happened two years ago."

Bayern's response came from their managing director Karl Hopfner and was somewhat different in tone to Ferguson's. "Naturally we have not forgotten the final of two years ago. Perhaps we will have a little more luck in these two games." The first of those is at Old Trafford on Tuesday April 3rd.

Arsenal will have to rediscover the early season chemistry that took them past Lazio if they are to progress at Valencia's expense. Arsenal won just two of their second phase group games, scored less and conceded more than both Munich and Lyon, yet still sneaked through.

It is unlikely Leeds will pay much attention to the fact that Arsenal thumped five past Deportivo at Highbury last season in the UEFA Cup, and rather more to the fact that Deportivo are the current Spanish champions.

Deportivo, who edged out Galatasaray and knocked out Milan in the San Siro - venue for this season's final - are the only Spanish team unbeaten at home this season.

Completing the Anglo-Spanish triangle are Liverpool. With their season and their UEFA Cup campaign steadily gathering momentum, Gerard Houllier was understandable in saying that other sides, no matter the reputation, would be "wary" of meeting them, but the tie with the Catalans is another sign of the red revival.

What could scupper it is the fixture congestion - Liverpool face seven games, including three semi-final matches against Barcelona and Wycombe Wanderers, in 23 days. However, what yesterday's draw proved is that one man's fixture pile-up is another's fixture feast.