Beckham to Manchester, Mourinho to Chelsea, Ancelotti to Madrid?

Three well known faces of European soccer could return to the scene of past glories when the champions league draw takes place later today.

The draw structure keeps apart winners of the eight first-round groups, which include three English and three Spanish sides, who will play their first-leg matches away at one of the runners-up.

The format of the draw makes sure teams cannot play a side they have already played in the knockout stage or a team from its own country.

This means Group B winners Manchester United could be drawn against AC Milan, which will have former United player David Beckham back in its squad when he rejoins on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy next month.

“Since I left in 2003, I’ve not gone back and played at Old Trafford,” Beckham went on to say, “seven years have passed and I would like it to happen, me against Manchester United would be great.”

Meanwhile Inter coach Jose Mourinho has Group D winners Chelsea, which he led to two straight Premier League titles between 2004-06, as one of six possible opponents.

That tie could also send Chelsea coach Carlo Ancelotti back to the city he left last season after eight years coaching AC Milan, as one of the Blues’ seven possible opponents.

Madrid have not won the trophy since 2002 and have failed to get past the first knockout stages for the past five seasons, with the added incentive of hosting the May 22 final at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium, Madrid spent 250-million-euro purchasing Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka and Xabi Alonso.

Real’s desire for a 10th title has been given added urgency by the fact that bitter rivals Barcelona, won it in 2006 and are currently the Champions League holders after beating Manchester United in last years final.

Sevilla and Arsenal also headed their groups to earn home advantage in the second-leg matches in March, along with the two most successful teams from the six-match first phase.

French champions Bordeaux and Italy’s Fiorentina both got five wins in the group stages to earn the most prize money from UEFA.

Bordeaux earned 11.5 million euros in participation bonuses plus prizes based on results.

All 16 clubs in Friday’s draw have pocketed at least 9.9 million euros and will each get a further three million euros for taking part in the first knockout round. All will later collect a share of a 337 million euro pool from television rights money.

Joining the two Milan clubs as group runners-up are German pair Bayern Munich and Stuttgart, Portugal’s Porto, Lyon of France, Russia’s CSKA Moscow and Greek champion Olympiakos.

First-leg matches are played February 16-17 and 23-24, and return matches on March 9-10 and 16-17.

Also later today, UEFA will draw the knockout round-of-32 matches for the Europa League.

The 24 teams advancing from the group stage, including UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine, are joined by the eight third-place finishers from the Champions League groups.

They are: Liverpool, Juventus, Marseille, Atletico Madrid, Wolfsburg, Rubin Kazan, Unirea and Standard Liege.