European Champions League quarterfinals to get underway
SOCCER
Manchester United will play AS Rome in Italy amid worries about volatile fans and Schalke 04 will play host to Barcelona in Germany.
The European Champions League quarterfinals start Tuesday, with Manchester United playing AS Rome in Italy and Schalke 04 playing host to Barcelona in Germany.
The first game already has been surrounded by all sorts of off-field intrigue and distractions, not least of which is how to deal with the Italian team's volatile fans. There was violence last season when the teams also met in the quarterfinals, and more is feared.
In an effort to keep things calm inside and outside Rome's Stadio Olimpico, where fighting took place between Roma and Real Madrid supporters this season, UEFA has threatened to yank the 2009 Champions League final from Rome.
"If there are more incidents . . . we will have to reconsider the plan to have the 2009 final in Rome," said UEFA spokesman William Gaillard. "It's not a problem connected to soccer itself. It's a problem that regards the city. Many games in Rome are followed by incidents outside the stadium, incidents in the city, with attacks on buses and fans knifed."
Gaillard said "a group of criminals" was responsible for the violence.
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AS Roma Coach Luciano Spalletti, who also has appealed for fans to behave, will be without talismanic striker Francesco Totti for Tuesday's match. The 2006 World Cup winner tore a muscle in his left thigh in a league game Sunday.
Spalletti might also want to be keeping an eye over his own shoulder. Despite AS Roma being in the Champions League quarterfinals and in second place behind Inter Milan in Serie A, there are those with designs on his job.
"If I could decide to finish my career with one club, it would be really wonderful to finish it with Roma," Carlo Ancelotti, the coach of defending European and world champion AC Milan, told Italian television.
"Rome is the most beautiful city in the world. You cannot find another comparable city anywhere."
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Another coach who might well be moving on in a few months is Barcelona's FrankRijkaard, whose team has slumped to third place in the Spanish league and almost has to overcome Schalke in their Champions League quarterfinal series to salvage its season.
"We will not start to cry, because that is not the solution," said Rijkaard, who led Barcelona to the title in 2006, defeating Arsenal in the final. "We are aware of the fact that there are enough teams throughout Europe who are physically stronger than we are, particularly in England, but also in Germany. But we have to play to our strengths."
