Champions League/Quarter-final draw: Jose Mourinho has never been timorous but he does become wary at the prospect of meeting Italian teams.
In his mind the greatest stroke of luck for his Porto side on their way to winning the Champions League must have been seeing Deportivo La Coruna account for Milan in the last eight.
The Chelsea manager would again prefer to dodge Carlo Ancelotti's side and the other Serie A representatives in this morning's quarter-final draw for the tournament.
Mourinho is troubled by the thought of being outdone at his own speciality. "You can expect a perfect defensive team," he said of Italian opponents. He is in no position to deplore caution in others and Milan, who knocked out Manchester United with 1-0 wins home and away, probably embody the standards which Mourinho feels he has still to reach.
The 2003 winners of the Champions League are the team to admire and to avoid. On the evening when they overcame Juventus on penalties at Old Trafford two years ago, the goalless match was absorbing at first but eventually stultifying. It is instructive, after the tumult in west London last week, to recall as well that Ancelotti's men finished above Barcelona in the group phase with no fuss whatsoever. Milan hardly ever make the mistakes that inspire hope.
Liverpool, the other English participants, have leaned heavily on away goals to get this far. From the qualifying fixture at Grazer, through the crucial group fixture in La Coruna and on to the recent jubilation in Leverkusen, Rafael Benitez's side have shown a capacity for scoring on their travels. The emphasis on defence, however, was already marked in the Champions League and now it will be harder still to record a goal.
Anyone who watched Juventus lose 1-0 to Real Madrid in the Bernabeu left in dismay, succumbing to the suspicion that Fabio Capello's team would come through in the tie, as they did with a 2-0 victory after extra-time in Turin. The meticulous dreariness will not be affected by the loss of Alessio Tacchinardi, who will be suspended from both legs of the quarter-final unless he makes a successful appeal.
It is a relief that Internazionale exist to bring some flakiness to Italian football. There are far too many draws on their record, but Roberto Mancini has a good enough squad to put Christian Vieri on the bench, as he did when the holders Porto were overcome 3-1 on Tuesday. The goals all came from Adriano, who had been out of touch, and it is the potential of footballers such as the Brazilian which makes Inter the wild card.
Bayern Munich, too, should be treated with care. They have been comparatively poor since winning the tournament in 2001, but Felix Magath's side were in control against Arsenal. At Highbury they employed an ostensibly attacking system with the real intention of tying down opponents meant to be pursuing a recovery from the 3-1 defeat in Germany. With the exception of Thierry Henry's virtuoso goal, Arsenal were reduced to blandness. Bayern will be formidable opponents, particularly if Roy Makaay or his understudy Paolo Guerrero are fit for the last eight.
The remaining participants are harder to assess. PSV have now gone further than Arsenal, yet took only one point from Arsene Wenger's team in the group phase. They are leading the Dutch league and are well coached by the experienced Guus Hiddink, but many of the other Champions League teams would expect to have the measure of them.
The same cannot be said of Lyon. They have an eight-point lead in the French league and should take the title for the fourth time in succession to emphasise they are the most dominant team from that country since Marseille came to the fore in the late 1980s.
Paul le Guen's side deflect attention from their success and fullback Jeremy Berthod sounds more like a sightseer when he claims he wants to face Milan for "the chance to visit their stadium".
He and the Lyon team, though, can be disruptive guests. They won 3-0 away to the Bundesliga champions Werder Bremen and then overwhelmed them 7-2. When a 10-2 aggregate victory attracts only passing interest it becomes even more obvious that preventing goals is a greater obsession than scoring them in the modern Champions League.
