Danish dynamite joins big guns in CL knockout rounds (News Feature)

By John Bagratuni Dec 9, 2010, 11:38 GMT

Berlin - England, Spain and Italy had all clubs advance from the group stage in the European Champions League while Copenhagen are making history as the first Danish club to reach the knockout rounds.

And according to the final standings on Wednesday night, title holders Inter Milan can run into heavyweights such as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Chelsea, Manchester United or Bayern Munich when the round of 16 draw is made on December 17.

Spain lost Seville and Italy's Sampdoria Genoa also went out in the qualifying round but neither country suffered further casualties as Barcelona, Real Madrid, Valencia, Inter, AC Milan and Roma advanced from the round robin action.

The Premier League, meanwhile, saw Tottenham through from qualifying in its debut season in the event and Spurs went on to top their group ahead of Inter to join the usual English suspects of Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester United in the last 16.

'It's great to top the group, it's just what we wanted to do. We've come a long way as a team and everyone should be proud of themselves,' said Spurs forward Jermain Defoe.

After all, group winners will draw second-placed teams next week Friday in the first knockout step towards the May 28 final at Wembley which provides some extra motivation especially for the three London clubs.

However, with Italy's trio of Inter, AC Milan and Roma looming along with Arsenal, first-placed teams face by no means an easy task when the knockout action gets underway on February 15.

The eight group winners Spurs, Schalke, Manchester United, Barcelona, Munich, Chelsea, Real Madrid and Shakhtar Donetsk will be pitted against the second-placed teams of Inter, Lyon, Valencia, Copenhagen, Roma, Marseille, AC Milan and Arsenal.

Teams from the same league and group will be kept apart, though, in this first knockout round.

This means that Arsenal already know they will play against a team from Spain (Barca, Real) or Germany (Munich, Schalke).

'If you ask me where would you like to go? I don't know. You (the journalists) might prefer to go to Spain, for us not necessarily,' manager Arsene Wenger told a news conference.

Copenhagen finished strongly behind Barcelona in their group to make Danish history as they join the 2009 UEFA Cup champions Shakhtar and Spurs as newcomers at this stage of the elite event.

'It will depend on the draw whether we have reached our limit,' said Copenhagen coach Stale Solbakken.

Others were not so lucky.

Slovakian debutants MSK Zilina lost 2-1 at home by Spartak Moscow as they went out with zero points. Turkey's Bursaspor got one point overall and conceded 10 goals alone in two games against Valencia.

Portugal's Braga were crushed 6-0 in their opener by Arsenal but regrouped to come third on nine points to continue in the Europa League just as Twente Enschede, Benfica Lisbon, Glasgow Rangers, Rubin Kazan, Basel, Spartak and Ajax Amsterdam.

The small clubs' presence was part of a Champions League reform last year by president Michel Platini, but apart from Copenhagen and Shakhtar the traditional powers are now among themselves - even though only seven qualified teams are national champions.

However, that should be good for the event as the group stage provided little real excitement with 12 of the 16 teams qualified for the next stage before this week's final round of group games and nine games decided by a margin of four goals or more.

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