Scottish Premier League side Aberdeen have their work cut out in the UEFA Cup knock-out stage after being drawn against 1996 winners Bayern Munich on Friday.
The Dons, who last reached this stage of the competition in 1986, beat the German giants during their successful 1983 Cup Winners' Cup campaign under Sir Alex Ferguson.
And despite a confident 4-0 demolition of FC Copenhagen on Thursday to reach the last 32 the club is under no illusion as to the task that awaits them.
PHOTO: AP
"It's a reward for a fantastic achievement by Jimmy and the players," said former Aberdeen captain and current club board member Willie Miller.
"If we can repeat something along the same lines then we can go into the game with confidence, but we are not kidding ourselves -- Bayern are a top, top club," he said.
Bayern manager Ottmar Hitzfeld is confident of a positive outcome and already has one eye on a last 16 encounter.
"It's a very interesting draw with a strong opponent. To go up against the Scots should not be taken for granted, but I will go there with the belief that we will advance to the next stage and then face the winner of the Anderlecht-Bordeaux match, which will be a superior level [than Aberdeen]," he said.
"But our main objective now is to prepare well [during the winter break] and then qualify by beating Aberdeen," Hitzfeld said.
It is a point of view shared by Bayern's Dutch midfielder Mark van Bommel.
"We should not underestimate this Scottish team, they are very combative," he said. "We saw during the 2008 European qualifiers that Scottish football has progressed a lot. I still believe, however, that we will win our ticket into the last 16."
David Moyes's on-form Everton, who finished unbeaten in group A, were drawn against Norwegian side SK Brann.
"It's quite a short trip for us but we are looking forward to it," said Toffees secretary David Harrison. "We put in some good performances in the group stages and hope it continues."
If Everton were to qualify they would meet another Norwegian side, Rosenborg, or Fiorentina.
Meanwhile Spurs, who reached the quarter-finals last season but lost to eventual winners Sevilla, drew Czech side Slavia Prague.
If successful against Slavia, Juande Ramos' men will face PSV Eindhoven or Helsingborg in the last 16.
Gary Megson's Bolton will have their hands full for their last 32 encounter against an impressive Atletico Madrid.
"It's a big one but they all are at this stage so we are pleased to be going to Spain," said the club's chief executive Allan Duckworth "It's a formidable challenge but one that Gary Megson will relish so we are looking forward to that."
If Bolton qualify for the next phase they will face either Sporting Lisbon or Basel.
Rangers, who enter the tournament after finishing third in their Champions League group, will play Greek side Panathinaikos, with the first leg played at Ibrox.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier