SOCCER:A delicious shudder of excitement and anticipation ran through two of Europe's great football cities yesterday morning when the draw for the Champions League's round of 16 produced a meeting between Manchester United and Real Madrid, alongside several other extremely promising ties.

Arsenal versus Bayern Munich, last year’s beaten finalists, and Celtic versus Juventus, the current Italian champions and league leaders, are contests to stir the blood.

So are the scheduled encounters between Milan and Barcelona, members of Europe’s old football aristocracy, and Shakhtar Donetsk and Borussia Dortmund, two of the most interesting teams to emerge from the group stage, who played important parts in the early elimination of Chelsea and Manchester City.

But it was to the match between United and Madrid that Paddy Crerand was referring when he unleashed a tweet within seconds of the announcement: “A clash of the titans, two biggest and most romantic clubs on the planet.”

Crerand, of course, views the world from a United perspective, having played a part in the club’s first European Cup success 45 years ago. As a Glaswegian of a certain age, he also remembers the night in 1960 when the Madrid team of Puskas and Di Stefano drew 135,000 to Hampden Park for their 7-3 victory over Eintracht Frankfurt in one of the greatest club matches of all time.

United versus Real is a tie whose history goes back almost to the dawn of the competition – to a Madrid victory over Matt Busby’s team in the 1957 semi-final, in fact, when Duncan Edwards, Dennis Viollet and Roger Byrne competed against Di Stefano, Gento and Raymond Kopa – and whose appeal transcends loyalties: few neutrals could remain unmoved by the prospect of the matches to come, first at the Bernabeu on February 13th and then at Old Trafford on March 5th.

Emotional weight

“It’s the game everybody wanted to see and nobody wanted to see because everybody wanted to save it for later in the competition,” John Alexander, United’s club secretary said.

Certainly the tie will have the emotional weight of a final, given that it pits a side with a record nine wins in the competition against opponents looking for the fourth title that would lift them to joint-fourth place in the all-time table, alongside Barcelona, Bayern Munich and Ajax.

On the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo’s return to his old club will be a focus of attention, with Robin van Persie keen to show himself capable of matching the goalscoring feats of United’s former number seven.

The star of the 2008 European Cup-winning side, Ronaldo played his last game for the English club in the following year’s final, which they lost to Barcelona, before his £80 million (€98m) move to Madrid.

Two men, however, will inevitably dominate the build-up. Both Alex Ferguson and Jose Mourinho harbour a fierce ambition to capture a third title. The irresistible subtext is the belief that Mourinho is the man Ferguson would like to see succeeding him at United when the Scot eventually hears the cue to call it a day, which could come with a third victory in the European Cup. So were United to go on and win this season’s competition, a stumble for Mourinho at this stage might put him closer to the manager’s seat at the Old Trafford.

It is nine years since the two faced one another for the first time, at the same stage of the 2003-04 competition, with an exultant Mourinho’s unfancied Porto proceeding to the last eight at the expense of United.

Since then they have met 14 times in head-to-head competition in European and English football, with the balance favouring the Portuguese over the Scot: six wins to Mourinho, three to Ferguson, and five draws. One of those Mourinho successes was his very first match in England, a 1-0 win for Chelsea on the opening day of the 2004-05 season.

Thrilling experience

“The fans will be very, very happy,” Emilio Butragueno, the former Madrid striker and now the club’s institutional relations manager, said. “It’s going to be a thrilling experience for everybody.”

For Mourinho, whose reigning Spanish champions now lie an apparently hopeless 13 points behind Barcelona in La Liga, it will also be a crucial one. Virtually certain to leave the Bernabeu at the end of this season, he will not want to do so without having the biggest club trophy of all to wave in the faces of his critics inside and outside the dressingroom – not to mention potential future employers elsewhere.

The shaky performance of Premier League clubs in this season’s European Cup is reflected in the bookmakers’ latest prices against one of them winning the title: United are 12 to 1, with Arsenal at 33 to 1. The north London side will have their hands full against a Bavarian squad enhanced since defeat in their own stadium at the hands of Chelsea last May by the addition of the strong Spanish midfield player Javi Martinez and the prolific Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic.

Celtic, despite their victory over Barcelona in the group stage, are rated no better than 150 to 1 for the trophy as they approach the tie against Juventus. “In terms of glamour,” Neil Lennon said, “it’s a beauty. In terms of qualification, it’s going to be very tough.”

Round of 16 The Draw

First legs

Feb 12th: Celtic v Juventus; Valencia v Paris St Germain

Feb 13th: Shakhtar Donetsk v Borussia Dortmund; Real Madrid v Manchester Utd

Feb 19th: Porto v Malaga; Arsenal v Bayern Munich

Feb 20th: Galatasaray v Schalke 04; AC Milan v Barcelona

Second legs

Mar 5th: Manchester Utd v Real Madrid; Borussia Dortmund v Shakhtar Donetsk Mar 6th: Paris St Germain v Valencia; Juventus v Celtic

Mar 12th: Schalke 04 v Galatasaray; Barcelona v AC Milan

Mar 13th: Malaga v Porto; Bayern Munich v Arsenal

Galatasaray v FC Schalke

Celtic v Juventus

Arsenal v Bayern Munich

Shakhtar Donetsk v Bor Dortmund

AC Milan v Barcelona

Real Madrid v Manchester Utd

Valencia v Paris St Germain

FC Porto v Malaga

United v Real Previous meetings

April 11th, 1957

Real Madrid 3 Manchester Utd 1

The Busby Babes' European baptism in front of 135,000 at the Bernabeu. Alfredo di Stefano was at his majestic best, scoring the second goal as Real cruised into a semi-final lead. A late Tommy Taylor header appeared to give United hope but Enrique Mateos scored again for the Spanish giants.

April 25th, 1957

Manchester Utd 2 Real Madrid 2

Any hope United had of getting through was extinguished when Di Stefano opened the scoring at Old Trafford. The Red Devils were two down before Tommy Taylor and Bobby Charlton struck back. United went out but a European odyssey was born.

April 24th, 1968

Manchester Utd 1 Real Madrid 0

Eleven years after their first semi-final meeting, the two sides met again. Matt Busby's side were at home first and grabbed a crucial first-leg lead when George Best turned home John Aston's first-half cross.

May 15th, 1968

Real Madrid 3 Manchester Utd 3

United seemed to be on their way out as the contest entered its final 20 minutes, with Real ahead on the night and in the tie. But David Sadler stunned Real when he pounced on George Best's free-kick before Munich survivor Bill Foulkes scored the most important goal of his United career to send Matt Busby's men through.

April 19th, 2000

Manchester Utd 2 Real Madrid 3

After a goalless first leg, United were in confident mood ahead of their quarter-final decider. But those hopes were soon dashed as the visitors raced into a three-goal lead, rendering late efforts from David Beckham and Paul Scholes meaningless.

April 23rd, 2003

Manchester Utd 4 Real Madrid 3

After losing the first-leg 3-1, Alex Ferguson dropped a bombshell by leaving out Beckham. It did not work on any level for the United boss. Three times Real led and Beckham's introduction triggered a comeback of sorts but his brace just left his manager even more red-faced.