Champions League: Spanish giants have Italian job on their minds

Spain's big two face a pair of Italian giants in the Champions League this week, boasting 22 European Cups between them, as AC Milan aim to end a recent bad record against Barcelona and Juventus seek to peg back Real Madrid.

With 10 points widely accepted as the magic number that usually puts a team through to the knockout stage of Europe's elite club competition, seven of the eight group leaders can get within a point of that with wins in this third round of games.

Among them are Group F pacesetters Arsenal, who host last season's runners-up Borussia Dortmund on Tuesday and holders Bayern Munich who entertain bottom club Viktoria Plzen in Group D on Wednesday.

The week's most eye-catching fixture, though, is Tuesday's Group H encounter at the San Siro as Milan and Barca meet for a third season in a row.

The Spaniards triumphed 4-2 on aggregate in last term's round of 16 and they also met in the group stage the year before, drawing 2-2 in Spain and Barca winning 3-2 in Italy.

Barcelona also overcame seven-times European champions Milan 1-0 on aggregate in the 2005/06 semi-finals on their way to their second of four continental titles.

The match provides the Italians with not just a chance of revenge but also the possibility of going above their rivals in the Group H standings where Gerardo Martino's team lead with a perfect six points from two matches with Milan second on four.

It will also offer an opportunity for referee Felix Brych to try to forget about a mistake in the Bundesliga at the weekend when he awarded Bayer Leverkusen striker Stefan Kiessling a goal when the ball had passed through a hole in the side-netting.

In Group B, Real Madrid are already four points clear of second-placed Juve before hosting them on Wednesday and while Carlo Ancelotti's men warmed up with a 2-0 victory over Malaga in La Liga at the weekend, the Italians lost 4-2 at Fiorentina.

"Madrid are arguably one of the most ambitious teams," Juventus manager Antonio Conte, whose club were continental champions in 1985 and 1996, was quoted as saying on uefa.com.

"We're facing a club that really want this title, because of their history and their hunt for a 10th European Cup. I think it will be a nice challenge for us to go and compete with them at the Santiago Bernabeu, as well as at home. It will tell us how well our development is going."