Euroscene: Galactico-Hispanic flair or Italian cunning? Anglo-Dutch attacking ability or Italian defensive technique? As Juventus prepare to host Real Madrid in Turin tomorrow night, and as reigning Italian champions AC Milan prepare to face Manchester United tonight in the San Siro, we can expect intriguing clashes of styles, ideologies and superstars.

Make no mistake, the Champions League works its own special magic. A full house at the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin comes around as often as a full eclipse of the sun. Yet, the clash with Real Madrid has been booked out for weeks.

It is the same story at the San Siro, where the box office receipts are scheduled to hit a record €2.44 million for tonight's game.

For those in the Real Madrid and Manchester United camps looking for crumbs of comfort from the weekend's action, there was little joy to be had from the 2-1 wins registered by the current joint leaders of Serie A, over Roma and Atalanta respectively.

If one believes in the concept of Dame Fortune sitting on a team's shoulder, then the Milan team would seem to prove the point. They go into tonight's game on the back of seven consecutive successes, and three of those games were won late or in injury-time, one came via an own goal and another (at Old Trafford, of course) owed much to a goalkeeping blunder.

It could be a mistake, however, to dismiss Milan's good run, or indeed their performance in that 1-0 win at Old Trafford, as lucky. Sides which consistently win matches late in the game are also sides full of self-belief and determination.

As Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said after the win over Atalanta: "At the moment, we seem to be able to play to our best, giving everything in the final minutes of matches.You can call us lucky, but you have to go make your own luck, too."

In the aftermath of Milan's win at Old Trafford, much British media coverage inevitably focused on goalkeeper Roy Carroll's blunder. Critical though that mistake was, it does less than justice to Milan to suggest that they "fluked it".

An aggressive attitude (remember Paolo Maldini's header over the bar and Clarence Seedorf's free-kick on to the bar in the opening minutes), a five-man midfield spider's web and peerless defensive work also played a large part in that win.

Tonight Ancelotti will field much the same side (Jaap Stam in central defence with Maldini moving to left back in place of injured Kakha Kaladze is the only likely change) and will hope for a repeat of the Old Trafford performance which he, incidentally, considers Milan's best of the season so far.

Comparison with Manchester United's splendid 3-2 win over Juventus (then coached by Ancelotti) in 1999 do not hold, Ancelotti claimed yesterday. For a start, that Juventus side had injury problems in defence, he said. For a second, we would add, that Turin 1999 tie started on a 1-1 scoreline. Tonight, Man United are an away goal down.

One thing is for sure: Milan will not repeat their mistake of last season when, having beaten Deportivo La Coruna 4-1 at the San Siro, they thought they were already into the next round and, for their arrogance, received a 4-0 drubbing at the Riazor.

If the odds seem to slightly favour Milan, the same cannot be said of Juventus. One goal down following the first leg at the Santiago Bernabeu, Juve face two serious problems. First, it is hard to imagine Ronaldo, Zidane, Figo, Beckham, Roberto Carlos et al not scoring (and at that point, Juventus need to score three). Second, and equally importantly, Juventus will again be without their talisman, Czech Republic midfielder Pavel Nedved, still recovering from a head injury picked up in the first leg.

Worse still for Juventus is the consideration that, following Saturday's 1-1 draw away to Valencia, Real are now eight points adrift of leaders Barcelona. In other words, all Real's eggs are in the Champions League basket.

A final thought on tomorrow night's game comes from Juventus defender Lilian Thuram. Informed that his compatriot, the peerless Zinedine Zidane would be available to play for Real, he commented laconically: "Good for the spectacle, bad for us."