LIVERPOOL will face the holders, Paris St Germain, in the semi finals of the Cup Winners' Cup, but the draw has not impaired Anfield's chances of reaching a European final for the first time since Heysel in 1985.
PSG, while considerably strong year than SK Brann, Liverpool's victims at Anfield on Thursday night, are hardly the team they were when Arsenal knocked them out in the semi finals of the same tournament three years ago. While Patrice Loko, whose hat trick in Athens on Thursday night eliminated AEK Athens, looks in ominously good form, there is nobody of George Weah's quality around to worry Liverpool.
Loko may prove a handful for Mark Wright. The 27 year old striker has come back from a nervous breakdown two years ago to help revive PSG's flagging fortunes this season. But Liverpool will still be glad to have avoided Ronaldo at Barcelona and Gabriela Batistuta, Fiorentina's Argentinian striker.
"We're back among the big boys of Europe and that's where we belong," the club's veteran midfielder John Barnes said. "When Liverpool dominated (England) in the late 1980s we were not allowed in Europe and people were probably asking `what happened to Liverpool?' This is really the first time since 1990 that we've been equipped to do well in Europe."
PSG general manager Jean Francois Domergue said his club was daunted, but thrilled to be drawn to play at Liverpool's Anfield stadium. It's clearly going to be a very difficult match. We'll be playing in one of the game's mythic stadiums, but when you see the four teams left in the cup it wouldn't have mattered who we drew."
The present state of Bobby Robson's defence at Nou Camp could make Barcelona the opponents Liverpool would prefer to meet in the final. The fact that Roy Evans's team will play the away leg first has improved their chances of getting there.
Manchester United enjoyed similar luck yesterday when the venues for the semi finals of the European Cup were decided. They will play the opening leg against Borussia Dortmund in the Ruhr, which is just what Alex Ferguson wanted.
With Matthias Sammer, the Dortmund sweeper, suspended for the first match, there was a slight case for wanting it the other way around, but if United have to win the second game to go through then Old Trafford on April 23rd is surely the place to do it.
In the UEFA Cup semi finals, Monaco, impressive conquerors of Newcastle United, will take on Inter Milan whose English manager, Roy Hodgson, now has a job on his hands if he wants to win something at the San Siro before joining Blackburn Rovers.
Tenerife, whose dismissal of Brondby this week confirmed the promise of their earlier victories against Lazio and Feyenoord, will meet Schalke in the other semifinal.
