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It cannot get any bigger to have Arsenal playing Liverpool in the quarter-finals of the Champions League. And as if things cannot get any more explosive, the Gunners and Reds will face each other 3 times in 9 days of which a Premier League fixture will be played in between the two other European legs, a familiar sight to what happened last season, only bigger. On the other draws, Chelsea will play Fenerbahce at Turkey before playing back at the Bridge. Spanish giant and sole survivor Barcelona will play Schalke 04 while old foes Manchester United and Roma faces each other. This would be the first time the two English giants face each other in Europe, and the next team that the winner of this tie will meet would be against Chelsea or Fenerbahce. Should Liverpool qualify, they will face Chelsea, again. But if Arsenal goes through, it will be the quarter finals in 2003/2004 season when Chelsea were the victors. The final, which will be played on May 21st in Moscow has brought about mixed reactions. Rick Parry publicly admitted that "We'd hoped to avoid the English teams at this stage but statistically there were bound to be two coming together and unfortunately it's us. We play Arsenal in a league game in between so we'll be playing them three times in a week.It'll be very similar, we know them extremely well and they know us. The three games are going to very, very tight. I don't think the Champions League is going to be any different, it's tough." The Red Devils, who would have met Roma for the 5th and 6th time in the span of less than a yearseemed content with the draw, club secretary Ken Ramsden said 'That's a good draw, I think, as a fan, I'm glad we're not playing an English team because it loses that flavour of a continental game. We're away first, which will please the manager, I'm sure. All in all, a good day, I think.' Last season, Man Utd beat Roma 8-3 on aggregate and a repeated result would be very much welcomed, "It would be nice." said the spokesman "We have a good record against them so there's no reason why we should be afraid.We're playing well but every team in the quarter-finals says the same thing."
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