Chelsea and Liverpool eye Champions League knockout round with wins

PARIS – English rivals Chelsea and Liverpool can become the first two teams to reach the Champions League knockout round with wins today.

Chelsea, the Premiership champions, can reach the last 16 with a win at Real Betis in Spain while Liverpool, the defending European champions and second behind the Londoners in Group G, will also go through with a win against Anderlecht at Anfield. The Belgians have lost all of three matches in the tournament this season without scoring a goal and haven’t won a European tie in their last 10 outings.Liverpool are desperate for a European tonic.They are 13th in the Premiership, with just three wins and seven goals in nine games.They are a huge 18 points behind Chelsea but coach Rafael Benitez has an admirable record in Europe with 17 wins in 25 matches.”We did a very good job in Brussels in the first leg to win 1-0,” said Benitez.”Now we intend to finish the job with another victory.If we do that we will be virtually through into the knockout stages.We have been very positive in our Champions League matches and I hope that we can continue this now.”Real Betis were outclassed 4-0 at Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the first meeting of the two teams and a 2-0 Spanish League defeat at home to Real Madrid on Saturday left them four places off the bottom.”Chelsea are a good team but it has been demonstrated in the past that things don’t always go as expected,” said Betis coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.”I don’t think my players are psychologically frightened about facing English sides even though Chelsea are a very powerful team.”Chelsea go into the game having seen off Blackburn 4-2 which kept them nine points ahead at the top of the English Premiership at the weekend.”I hope Betis think they can beat us and they play their normal way,” said Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.”We know we have to face difficult match after difficult match.We never said we will beat everybody.The only thing we keep saying is we are the best team.”Four-time French champions Lyon, with three wins in three matches so far in Group F, could virtually make sure of a place in the next round if they beat Olympiakos in Greece.Coach Gerard Houllier, who groomed the vast majority of the Liverpool squad which went on to win last season’s Champions League, believes the summer signing of Tiago from Chelsea could prove crucial as they plot a path to the quarter-finals for the first time.Real Madrid, who are in Lyon’s slipstream in Group F, go to Rosenborg hoping that Ronaldo, Julio Baptista and Zinedine Zidane will recover from injury to make the trip to Norway.But defender Michel Salgado will probably miss out after suffering a suspected broken jaw in Saturday’s win at Real Betis.In Group E, last season’s runners-up AC Milan go to PSV Eindhoven, who they beat in the semi-finals on the way to the final, buoyed by handing Juventus their first Serie A defeat of the season.Milan are top of Group E with five points from three games, one ahead of Fenerbache and PSV.Inter Milan, European champions in 1964 and 1965, top Group H with six points from three matches and face 2004 champions Porto at home.Like Liverpool, Inter are struggling on the home front and are eight points behind Juventus.But Inter have an excellent home record against Portuguese clubs in European competition with six wins and a draw in seven meetings.Glasgow Rangers, 10 points off the pace in the Scottish Premier League, are second in the group behind Inter with four points and go to Artmedia Bratislava, the Slovakian team who put out Celtic in the qualifying round.They too are looking for a continental boost against the team with whom they drew 0-0 at Ibrox.-Nampa-AFP Tuesday’s matches Group E PSV Eindhoven (NED) v AC Milan (ITA) Schalke (GER) v Fenerbahce (TUR) Group F Olympiakos (GRE) v Lyon (FRA) Rosenborg (NOR) v Real Madrid (ESP) Group G Real Betis (ESP) v Chelsea (ENG) Liverpool (ENG) v Anderlecht (BEL) Group H Artmedia (SVK) v Rangers (SCO) Inter Milan (ITA) v Porto (POR)The Belgians have lost all of three matches in the tournament this season without scoring a goal and haven’t won a European tie in their last 10 outings.Liverpool are desperate for a European tonic.They are 13th in the Premiership, with just three wins and seven goals in nine games.They are a huge 18 points behind Chelsea but coach Rafael Benitez has an admirable record in Europe with 17 wins in 25 matches.”We did a very good job in Brussels in the first leg to win 1-0,” said Benitez.”Now we intend to finish the job with another victory.If we do that we will be virtually through into the knockout stages.We have been very positive in our Champions League matches and I hope that we can continue this now.”Real Betis were outclassed 4-0 at Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the first meeting of the two teams and a 2-0 Spanish League defeat at home to Real Madrid on Saturday left them four places off the bottom.”Chelsea are a good team but it has been demonstrated in the past that things don’t always go as expected,” said Betis coach Lorenzo Serra Ferrer.”I don’t think my players are psychologically frightened about facing English sides even though Chelsea are a very powerful team.”Chelsea go into the game having seen off Blackburn 4-2 which kept them nine points ahead at the top of the English Premiership at the weekend.”I hope Betis think they can beat us and they play their normal way,” said Chelsea coach Jose Mourinho.”We know we have to face difficult match after difficult match.We never said we will beat everybody.The only thing we keep saying is we are the best team.”Four-time French champions Lyon, with three wins in three matches so far in Group F, could virtually make sure of a place in the next round if they beat Olympiakos in Greece.Coach Gerard Houllier, who groomed the vast majority of the Liverpool squad which went on to win last season’s Champions League, believes the summer signing of Tiago from Chelsea could prove crucial as they plot a path to the quarter-finals for the first time.Real Madrid, who are in Lyon’s slipstream in Group F, go to Rosenborg hoping that Ronaldo, Julio Baptista and Zinedine Zidane will recover from injury to make the trip to Norway.But defender Michel Salgado will probably miss out after suffering a suspected broken jaw in Saturday’s win at Real Betis.In Group E, last season’s runners-up AC Milan go to PSV Eindhoven, who they beat in the semi-finals on the way to the final, buoyed by handing Juventus their first Serie A defeat of the season.Milan are top of Group E with five points from three games, one ahead of Fenerbache and PSV.Inter Milan, European champions in 1964 and 1965, top Group H with six points from three matches and face 2004 champions Porto at home.Like Liverpool, Inter are struggling on the home front and are eight points behind Juventus.But Inter have an excellent home record against Portuguese clubs in European competition with six wins and a draw in seven meetings.Glasgow Rangers, 10 points off the pace in the Scottish Premier League, are second in the group behind Inter with four points and go to Artmedia Bratislava, the Slovakian team who put out Celtic in the qualifying round.They too are looking for a continental boost against the team with whom they drew 0-0 at Ibrox.-Nampa-AFP Tuesday’s matches Group E PSV Eindhoven (NED) v AC Milan (ITA) Schalke (GER) v Fenerbahce (TUR) Group F Olympiakos (GRE) v Lyon (FRA) Rosenborg (NOR) v Real Madrid (ESP) Group G Real Betis (ESP) v Chelsea (ENG) Liverpool (ENG) v Anderlecht (BEL) Group H Artmedia (SVK) v Rangers (SCO) Inter Milan (ITA) v Porto (POR)