Liverpool's coach, Rafael Benitez, gestures during their Champions League quarter-final second leg match against PSV Eindhoven in Liverpool, on Wednesday. - Reuters LONDON (AP):
THREE TEAMS from the same country have reached the Champions League semi-finals in the same season for the third time, and this year it's showing off the strength of the Premier League.
Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool - the top three teams in the English standings - all reached the last four. AC Milan are also in the semi-finals.
"To see three English teams at this stage shows just how strong the Premier League is," Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez said. "It is really important for the Premier League to show Europe how strong we are. It is the best league in Europe at this moment."
Liverpool, five-time European Cup champions, will face Chelsea in the semi-finals on April 25 and May 1. The two played in the semi-finals two years ago, when Liverpool went on to win their most recent European title. The second leg will again be at Anfield, where a controversial goal helped Liverpool advance last time.
Advantage
"They may not accept what happened here two years ago, but they cannot change things now," Benitez said. "We are pleased we will play the second leg at Anfield. If we can do something at Stamford Bridge, maybe we will then have the advantage."
Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti led his team past United in the second round of the 2005 tournament, but he's more worried about the Premier League leaders this time.
"They have got some more experience into their best players like Wayne Rooney and Cristiano Ronaldo," Ancelotti said. "They have the same approach as back then, but with more quality now."
United, who host Milan on April 24 and play in Italy on May 2, haven't got past Milan in three attempts in Europe - also losing in the 1958 and 1969 semi-finals.
None of the three Premier League teams has an English manager, but all four coaches in the semi-finals have won a Champions League title - Alex Ferguson with United in 1999, Benitez with Liverpool in 2005 and Ancelotti with Milan in 2003.
The fourth coach, Chelsea's Jose Mourinho, won the Champions League with FC Porto in 2004.
If Mourinho wins again in Athens, Greece, on May 23, he will join Ottmar Hitzfeld and Ernst Happel as the only coaches to lift the European Cup with two different teams.
Hitzfeld won in 1997 with Borussia Dortmund and in 2001 with Bayern Munich. Ernst Happel won in 1970 with Feyenoord and in 1983 with Hamburg.
Chelsea are also chasing Man United in the Premier League, have won the League Cup and are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup.
In 2000, Spanish teams Real Madrid, Valencia and FC Barcelona reached the last four, and Madrid beat Valencia in the final. Three Italian teams matchedthat in 2003, with Milan, Inter Milan and Juventus all reaching the semi-finals. Milan then beat Juventus on penalties in the final.
