Koeman eyes Barça reunion

By Tom Kington

After AFC Ajax had secured a place in the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League with a 1-1 Group A draw against AS Roma at the Stadio Olimpico, the Dutch champions' coach, Ronald Koeman, was already looking forward to a possible meeting with FC Barcelona in the last eight.

'I would like to play Barcelona'

Fabulous record
Koeman now has a one-in-three chance of meeting his former employers and is sure to have fond memories of his time at Camp Nou, where he made over 190 appearances, winning the European Champion Clubs' Cup, four Primera División titles and one Spanish Cup between 1989 and 1995.

'Young fighting team'

I am proud of this young fighting team

'We started with a handicap'

Cassano lifeline

'We played to win'
Indeed, the hosts amassed ten shots to Ajax's five inside the first 35 minutes of a pulsating match and were running the visitors ragged, a fact not lost on Capello. "We played to win and played extremely well," said Capello. "Both myself and the chairman were down in the changing rooms at the final whistle to thank the players."

Tight section
With Valencia beating Arsenal 2-1 in Spain to top the tightest of the four sections, even a victory would not have been enough to send Roma through. Having learned the scoreline from the Mestalla, goalkeeper Ivan Pelizzoli was philosophical in his reaction to Roma's draw. "I didn't expect Valencia to win," he said. "But as they did it would have made things worse for us if we had won the match."

Former glories
Following almost a decade in the wilderness of European competition, few had counted Ajax among the favourites to win this season's Champions League. With the likes of Cristian Chivu, Rafael van der Vaart, Van der Meyde and Zlatan Ibrahimovic adding a youthful zest to the solid Ajax foundations, only a fool would write the four-time European champions off going into the knockout stages.