MANCHESTER // Sir Alex Ferguson is determined Manchester United will become the first club to defend the Champions League title, and what better time to reintroduce Cristiano Ronaldo after ankle surgery than for the start of the group stage. It is highly likely the Portugal winger, who scored an incredible 42 goals last season ? including one in the Champions League final against Chelsea ? will make his highly anticipated return from July's ankle surgery against Villarreal on Wednesday, Ferguson said.
It should help the Red Devils obliterate memories of Saturday's league defeat to Liverpool at Anfield in seven years. "You have to recover, that's the name of the game," Ferguson said. "It's the Champions League and I think we are in a good group and I think we have a good chance of qualifying." The former United striker Giuseppe Rossi looks set to miss out on facing his former employers as he has missed all of Villarreal's opening league games with a sprained left ankle.
Group E also includes Celtic who hail from Ferguson's native Glasgow in Scotland and Danish side Aalborg. "The way I look at the Champions League is to get to 10 points," Ferguson said. "If you get that you know you have qualified and you can look forward to February when it really starts to kick-in." Chelsea, who were denied their first European Cup on penalty kicks by Ferguson's troops in May, host French side Bordeaux on Tuesday.
The Blues will also face Serie A side Roma in Group A, along with the Romanian Champions League newcomers CFR Clujnapoca. A Champions League crown is top of Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich's priority list, second place was deemed not good enough to save former Chelsea manager Avram Grant's job. "For me, the Champions League is not more important than the Carling Cup," said the new manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
"It is important but it is not more important than a league game. We need to think game by game. "If I say the Champions League is the most important then my players will ask why they need to bother in the other games." The Germany midfielder Michael Ballack is set to return from a knee injury. Bordeaux have fitness doubts over the Brazilian defender Henrique, who bruised his thigh in Saturday's 1-1 draw against Marseille, while fullbacks Mathieu Chalme and Benoît Tremoulinas are both suspended.
Bordeaux will be looking for playmaker Yohan Gourcuff for inspiration after his acclaimed France debut over Serbia last week. "We know that Chelsea will be favourite, but we just have to go there and give it our best," Gourcuff said. "We should not feel inhibited in any way. We just have to keep playing our own way." It is a different story for Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez who is under more pressure to deliver the club's first English league title since 1990 than repeat his 2005 Champions League triumph.
The five-time European Cup winners begin their quest for a sixth title in Marseille with lingering concerns over the fitness of star striker Fernando Torres, who remained on the bench for Saturday's victory over Manchester United. "I am not reassured when I see how Liverpool played against Manchester," the Marseille coach Eric Gerets said. "That was impressive." The Reds took just one point from their first three group stage matches last season, but recovered to seal the semi-finals, beating Marseille 4-0 along the way.
Atletico Madrid should have strikers Sergio Aguero and Diego Forlan fully recovered after the international break for Tuesday's other Group D meeting with the Dutch club PSV Eindhoven, which will be the Spaniards' first Champions League match since 1996. Preparing to host Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday, Barcelona's morale was hit by Saturday's 1-1 draw against Racing Santander. The team's worst start to a season since 1973 has piled the pressure on the inexperienced coach Pep Guardiola, who will be without the Belarus midfielder Alexander Hleb for three weeks after he sprained his left ankle during Saturday's match.
Basle and Shakhtar Donetsk are the other teams in Group C. Jose Mourinho begins his quest to repeat his 2004 Champions League triumph with Portuguese club FC Porto when he takes his Inter Milan side to Panathinaikos on Tuesday in Group B, which also features Werder Bremen and Cypriot newcomers Anorthosis Famagusta. The Real Madrid coach Bernd Schuster is hopeful of steering the nine-time champions beyond the last 16 of the Champions League after their failure to do so in the past four years.
"If we have just a little more luck we can get past the first knockout round without any problems," said Schuster, whose side play BATE, the first Belarusians in the group stage. In the other Group H clash, last season's Uefa Cup winners Zenit St Petersburg travel to Juventus, who are back in Europe after a two-year absence following their demotion to Serie B for their part in the match-fixing scandal that rocked Italian football.
On Wednesday, Arsenal travel away to face Dynamo Kiev and Porto host Fenerbahce in Group G, while Fiorentina visit Lyon and Steaua Bucharest meet Bayern Munich in Group F. *AP
