Manchester-Bayern `Showdown Between England and Germany`

England clashes with Germany. Star players such as David Beckham (England), Rivaldo (Brazil), Michael Owen (England) and Carsten Jancker (Germany) will participate in this showdown of the century.

The 2001-2002 UEFA Champions League starts the group league of semi-quarter final contestants from 21st

The top-ranking teams in the European soccer leagues participate in this Champions League, which will be the fierce contest between the distinguished teams of Europe.

Among the four opening games on 21st, the game between Manchester United and Bayern Munich representing English soccer and German soccer respectively will be the most exciting match. German soccer fans, who had been subjected to the shameful 1-5 defeat by England in the Europe region qualifier for the 2002 World Cup, are expecting that the best team in the Bundesliga Bayern Munich will recover the dignity of German soccer.

Last Champions League, the Bayern Munish had defeated the Manchester in the semi-finals, and finally won the title. For Manchester, the captain Roy Keane recovered from injury. Head Coach Alex Ferguson said, "As Keane returned, the team got back its normal condition. I hope my team will show a great game."

For Bayern, on the other hand, even though national team member Jancker, Elber who recorded 6 goals only in the Champions League, and `genius of passing` Hasan Salihamidzic are in good shape, three starting members such as Jens Jeremies, Mehmet Scholl and Rogue Santa Cruz are injured, which brought about the weakening of best-11.

And another attention-grabbing game is the match between England`s Liverpool leading the England`s Premier League, and Spain`s Barcelona. In this game, one needs to watch over the speed contest between Liverpool`s Michael Owen and Barcelona`s Marc Overmars. Overmars from Holland returning from 10-week injury break will have a speed contest against Owen who is recently raising his value.

Barcelona will send all the best members including `left-foot expert` Rivaldo, and a Dutch goal-getter Patrick Kluivert.

Besides, AS Rome (Italy)-Galatasaray (Turkey), and Boavista-Nante will also show big matches intriguing fanatic European soccer fans.

stt77@donga.com