Barcelona opens its Champions League title defense against a familiar face when it faces Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan at San Siro. Assistant to Bobby Robson at Camp Nou in the late 1990s when Barcelona coach Pep Guardiola was an influential midfielder, Mourinho has since won the Champions League with FC Porto, two English league titles with Chelsea and Serie A with Inter. Now he comes face to face with Guardiola, who last season guided Barca to the domestic league and cup titles as well as the Champions League. Although this is the first round of the long group stage of matches, Mourinho will want to make a mark by guiding Inter to a victory. Wednesday's game could also see Barcelona striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Inter's Samuel Eto'o facing each other a season after they played for each other's clubs. The two stars swapped teams in the offseason and Mourinho, who once described Ibrahimovic as the best striker in the world, said he would not dwell on the Swede's departure. Barcelona and Inter are the strong favorites to qualify for the last 16-team knockout stage from their group and leave Dynamo Kiev and Russian champion Rubin behind. They meet Wednesday in Ukraine. While Barcelona aims to become the first club since AC Milan in 1989-90 to collect the famous trophy two years in a row, England's Premier League hopes to maintain its strong recent performance in getting three clubs to the last four two seasons in a row. Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United – the last four Champions League runners up – are back again, while United won the title in 2008. Manchester United begins the group phase away to Turkey's Besiktas Tuesday and also has surprise German champion Wolfsburg and CSKA Moscow in its group. Now guided by Carlo Ancelotti, who won the title with Milan as a player and a coach, Chelsea begins against FC Porto. The two clubs also have to face Atletico Madrid and APOEL Nicosia, who also meet Tuesday. Arsenal goes to Standard Liege Wednesday, when group rivals Olympiakos and AZ Alkmaar also meet. The Gunners come off their second Premier League loss in a row - 4-2 at Manchester City - while Standard will be without captain Steven Defour who broke his right foot in a league game Saturday. Five-time winner Liverpool hosts Hungarian Debrecen, which makes its first visit to Anfield Wednesday. Lyon meets Fiorentina in the other group match. The Premier League's strong show contrasts with the decline of Serie A in European football's top club competition. Four Italian sides have made it to this stage with seven-time winner AC Milan traveling to Marseille for its opening game Tuesday and a mouthwatering meeting with nine-time winner Real Madrid further down the line. Madrid starts with a visit to FC Zurich. Routed 4-0 by Inter and held 0-0 Saturday by Livorno, Milan has made a poor start with Ronaldinho off form. Juventus begins at home to French champion Bordeaux Tuesday but may be without playmaker Diego, who picked up a thigh injury in Saturday's 2-0 victory over Lazio. Bayern Munich, which has won the title four times, goes to Maccabi Haifa in the other group game. Unirea Urziceni is one of eight clubs making their debuts at this stage of the competition and the team which has only been in top flight Romanian football for three years hopes to make a mark by winning away to Sevilla Wednesday. VfB Stuttgart and Rangers face each other in what appears to be a wide open group.
