Manchester United Football Club News

• Nickname:Red Devils
• Founded:1878
• Manager:Sir Alex Ferguson

• Ground:Old Trafford
• Capacity:68,174

Fergie happy with Inter draw

19 Dec 2008 - 13:07:33

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Sir Alex Ferguson is already looking forward to renewing acquaintances with Jose Mourinho after his Manchester United side were paired with Internazionale in the last 16 of the Champions League.

Mourinho guided his then FC Porto side to victory against United in 2004 on their way to winning the Champions League and he enjoyed many classic encounters with Ferguson's side as manager of Chelsea.

The Scot told United's official website: "It'll be interesting to come up against Jose again. He's a character with a good personality and I've always got on well with him.

"He knocked us out of the competition when he was at Porto, so I hope we have the luck they had in that tie this time round.

"Inter have had a tremendous domestic record in recent years and that speaks volumes for the consistency of their team.

"They've also got a lot of experience in their team which includes quite a few South American players. In fact I think they've only got two Italians in their team.

"That in itself represents a tough challenge because you know that South American players defensively are always very tough and resilient players.

"We've played against most of their players over the years and faced them in a friendly last year at Old Trafford. So we know all about them. Hopefully we can do the job there in the first game and give ourselves a platform to take back to Old Trafford.

"The San Siro is a great stadium to play in. When we played them in the quarter-final back in 1999 they had a few problems with the pitch and had relaid it just a couple of weeks before we went there.

"But now it seems to be very good. We've lost two semi-finals to AC Milan there so we want to go there and do better.

"This is stage when the competition gets going and I think all the English teams have a good chance. I'm happy with our draw."