Cristiano Ronaldo will return to Old Trafford to face Manchester United after Real Madrid were drawn against his old side in the last 16 of the Champions League. It will also pit Jose Mourinho against Sir Alex Ferguson in the most mouthwatering tie of the first knock-out round of Europe’s top club competition. The only other English side, Arsenal will face last season’s beaten finalists Bayern Munich, while Celtic will take on Italian champions Juventus as they look for a place in the quarter-finals.
In the other matches, Barcelona will take on AC Milan, German champions Borussia Dortmund face Shakhtar Donetsk, Valencia play Paris St Germain, Porto tackle Spanish side Malaga and Galatasaray will come up against Schalke.
United have a slight advantage over Real in that as group winners they will get to play the second leg at home.
Arsenal and Celtic, who were group runners-up, will both play their second legs away. Cristiano Ronaldo scored 118 goals in 292 appearances for United, but it was another Ronaldo – the Brazilian striker – who took the honours when the clubs last faced each other in 2003, scoring a hat-trick at Old Trafford as Real went through 6-5 on aggregate.
The clubs first met in the European Cup in April 1957, when Real triumphed 5-3 in the semi-final. Ronaldo’s last match for United was in the Champions League final defeat by Barcelona, after which he moved to Madrid for a world record £80million transfer fee. Celtic boss Neil Lennon called his side’s draw against Juventus “a beauty” but very tough.
Lennon said: “Well in terms of glamour it’s a beauty. Juventus are one of the great traditional European teams. They’re current Italian champions and finished the group stage very strongly. So in terms of glamour it’s great, in terms of qualification it is going to very tough, but it could have been any of the other teams and it would have been just as tough.
“We will take it as it comes, we’re looking forward to the games now and I’m sure our supporters will be as well.
“We believe over two games anything is possible. Juventus are littered with world-class stars and have been very consistent over the last 18 months and have got a great winning mentality, but so have we. “To come through the group as impressively as we did, you just never know where you’ll be in a month or two’s time in terms of fitness and form.”
AC Milan sporting director Umberto Gandini told www.uefa.com: “Last season we faced them twice (the group stage and quarter-finals), this time only once fortunately. We are now used to playing in Catalonia. “We are improving and I’m sure we will continue to do so until February. “We face a perfect machine even if they had more problems than usual this season in the group stage. Let’s just hope we will qualify this time around. “This is the highest hurdle we could face but if we manage to pass it we can go all the way.” Barca coach Tito Vilanova was having cancer treatment on his parotid gland on Thursday before undergoing six weeks of chemotherapy. Gandini said in support: “We are all very close to Tito Vilanova and his family and we wish him all the best for his surgery. “We hope he will be on the bench against us.”
