Saturday’s Newspapers: CL draw reaction

Inter Milan? Who are they? We’ll conquer the bloody world.

This morning’s Liverpool Daily Post says:

Benitez knows his side are capable of beating any team in Europe on their day – as their now famous comeback from 3-0 down against AC Milan in the 2005 final showed.

They also beat Barcelona in their run to last season’s final, where the Milanese claimed revenge in Athens, and that gives the manager hope for the rest of this campaign.

‘œEverybody was expecting a difficult draw and Inter Milan are one of the top sides,’ he said.

‘œI think they (Inter) will be worried, for sure. They know we are a good team and anything can happen in two months’ time.’

The Times’ Oliver Kay knows how daunting a prospect the San Siro will be for both Liverpool and Arsenal, who face European Champions AC Milan.

The San Siro stadium has often been a graveyard for British hopes in the Champions League and, after a draw yesterday that punished Arsenal and Liverpool for their failure to win their groups in the first round, the danger is that another two of the Barclays Premier League‘s leading clubs will be brought to their knees in one of the great cathedrals of European football.

If the instinctive reaction was that Arsenal have the tougher draw away to AC Milan, the holders, Liverpool would be justified in claiming that they had come off worse: they face Inter Milan, runaway leaders of Serie A, in which their city rivals continue to languish just below halfway.

But before we start looking ahead to our February/March clash with the Italian giants, there’s the small matter of our domestic form to get back on track. Three straight defeats sees us ten points behind Premier League leaders Arsenal (with a game in hand, however) and an FA Cup third round tie at Luton Town just around the corner. It’s a busy festive schedule for Rafa Benitez’s men, and it kicks off today at home to Portsmouth, at 3pm.