Auxerre relish Gallic flavour

By Svend Frandsen, Kadira Malkoc & Kevin Ashby

The AJ Auxerre president Jean-Claude Hamel relished the prospect of facing a "legend of European football" after the sole French challengers were pitted against Liverpool FC in the fourth round of the UEFA Cup.

Old friends
Both clubs dropped into the UEFA Cup after finishing third in their UEFA Champions League first group stage pools and their respective coaches, Auxerre's Guy Roux and Liverpool's Gérard Houllier, are old friends which only serves to add spice to a game already overflowing with Gallic flavour.

'Proud past'
"It will be a big challenge as Liverpool have a proud past and present history," said Hamel to uefa.com. "They are not a club like any other in England and I expect to see two very good matches between two sides who have taken their campaigns in Europe very seriously. This was an unexpected adventure, but we are happy to be here."

Classic meeting
Their last meeting, in the second round of the UEFA Cup in 1991, was a classic, Liverpool overturning a 2-0 first-leg deficit to win 3-2 on aggregate at Anfield. The club's chief executive, Rick Parry, said of the tie: "It's a tricky one. Auxerre are a good team with some very good young players. Gérard is quite excited about playing a French team as he always likes to go back to France."

Former winners
Liverpool, three-times winners, and RSC Anderlecht are the only clubs remaining in the competition to have lifted the UEFA Cup. The Belgian side were paired with Panathinaikos FC in a repeat of a European Champion Clubs' Cup meeting of 1991, both games ending 0-0. The Greek club's chief of internal relations, Sofoklis Pilavios, was pleased with the draw.

Hope for fair play
"We are very happy that for the third year in succession we have made it to the last 16," he said. "Anderlecht are a very good team. We know each other well and I hope for two good games governed by fair play. We have four wins and two draws in this competition and our players have proved they enjoy this tournament."

Flying the flag
Both Greece and Turkey, who failed in their attempt to win the right to stage UEFA EURO 2008, have two clubs remaining in the competition. Málaga CF's opponents AEK Athens FC make up the Hellenic challenge, while Denizlispor - who face FC Porto - and Besiktas JK fly the red flag of Turkey.

'Tough game'
Unbeaten Super League leaders Besiktas will play SK Slavia Praha, a pleasing fixture for press officer Erdi Arpaci. "It's a good draw for us," he said. "It was important for us to reach this stage and now we plan to go as far as possible." The general manager of Slavia, Josef Jinoch, countered: "We're second in Czech league so it is also a tough game for them."

Sterner resistance
Polish side Wisla Kraków's reward for eliminating FC Schalke 04 is a tie against S.S. Lazio. Striker Tomasz Frankowski told uefa.com he expects the Romans to offer sterner resistance than the German side: "We've been drawn with the hardest of possible rivals," he said. "The boys proved they can fight everyone and win but in this case it will be very hard."

February fixtures
The Scottish champions Celtic FC will not take VfB Stuttgart lightly after eliminating fancied Spanish side RC Celta de Vigo in round three. "There are very few teams at this stage of the competition that are not big challenges and it would be silly to say otherwise," said spokesman Ronny Hawthorn. "They're a good, very well-organised team and a very professional club who we are looking forward to playing." The fourth-round matches will be played on 20 and 27 February 2003.