There were huge grins in Italy after defending champions AC Milan and rivals Inter received favourable Champions League draws.

Milan will play Celtic, Benfica and Shakhtar Donetsk in Group D while Inter are in Group G with PSV Eindhoven CSKA Moscow and Fenerbahce.
 
“Big smiles” ran the headline in Gazzetta dello Sport, along with two big yellow smileys. “Milan and Inter have it easy.”
 
But such overconfidence has led big teams to flop in the group stage before as Manchester United found to their cost two seasons ago when they finished fourth behind Villarreal, Benfica and Lille.
 
In any case, isn’t it better to come up against as many top teams as possible? The Champions League is supposed to be about testing yourself against the best, after all.

Tough matches early on could be the perfect catalyst for a successful campaign and AS Roma are hoping that the urge for revenge after their 7-1 drubbing by United last season can help them defeat Alex Ferguson’s men this time around.

Mark Meadows, Milan

Kevin Fylan adds: If drawing Europe’s finest is really what it’s all about, German clubs should be pretty happy. Schalke are in Group B with Valencia, Chelsea and Rosenborg, Stuttgart will face Barcelona, Olympique Lyon and Rangers in Group E, while Werder Bremen are with Real Madrid, Lazio and Olympiacos in Group C.

Werder came close to knocking out Barcelona in the group stage last season and they will relish a crack at Real Madrid, coached now by the German Bernd Schuster and with Christoph Metzelder at centre-back.

English clubs have got very good at negotiating their way through the group phase and I suspect none of them will be exactly daunted by their groups. Chelsea have what looks to be the toughest ask, while Arsenal will be confident of getting through, even assuming they have Sevilla as opponents.

As A Cultured Left Foot had it: “The Champions League draw was ultimately favourable to Arsenal… To win all six games may be too lofty an expectation; to remain unbeaten is within capabilities.”

But how was it for you and your team? Let us know if you’re feeling elated or depressed.

One of the most enduring images of the 1978 World Cup was of Argentina coach Cesar Luis Menotti chain-smoking on the bench as he led the hosts to victory.

The Thin One would not be allowed to do it nowadays. Coaches have been included in FIFA’s blanket ban on smoking in stadiums, as Ricardo La Volpe — another Argentine — discovered when he lit up on the bench while coaching Mexico at the World Cup.

But it is not just Menotti’s smoking which has gone from football. His vision of the game is a world away from his younger counterparts with their earphones, laptop computers, designer suits, statistics and emphasis on compactness and organisation.

Menotti prefers the word “ideas” to “tactics” and once described a footballer as “a privileged interpreter of the dreams and feelings of thousands of people”.

Menotti took charge of Argentina in 1974 when the team had earned an unsavoury reputation for violence and gamesmanship.

Under his leadership, Argentina reverted to the flowing, attacking game which they had used until the 1960s, the national team became the priority instead of the clubs and Argentina once again became a major soccer power.

Menotti went on to coach Barcelona and Atletico Madrid in Spain, Boca Juniors in his homeland, Uruguay’s Penarol and the Mexican national side.

Recently, however, he seems to have lost his touch. His last stint on the touchline, with Independiente in Argentina, lasted only nine matches in 2005. In previous jobs, he lasted seven months at Sampdoria in 1997, eight months at Independiente (again) in 1999 and five months at Rosario Central in 2002.

Menotti has now made a surprise return as coach of modest Mexican side Tecos UAG, who have taken only one point from their first four games in the Apertura championship. At The Offside he has been welcomed as “The Maestro”.

At 68, it could be the swansong for a man who is still much admired around the world. Can he reverse his recent trend of failure and prove there is still room for an old romantic in an increasingly ruthless sport?

Brian Homewood

Football is in mourning again after Zambian striker Chaswe Nsofwa of Israeli second division side Hapoel Beer Sheva collapsed and died during a practice match on Wednesday.

Tragically, and almost unbelievably, Nsofwa was the third footballer to die in a little over a week, following Antonio Puerta and the 16-year-old Walsall player Anton Reid. We are lucky it was not four. Leciester City defender Clive Clarke suffered a suspected cardiac arrest at half-time in a match against Nottingham Forest but he is apparently recovering well.

The question most fans are asking is how this can happen to professional athletes, apparently at the peak of fitness.

There have been immediate calls for better and more regular heart screening for players (see comments from Fifa’s chief medical officer, Professor Jiri Dvorak in The Telegraph, for example).

But isn’t it also time we considered whether we are simply asking too much of the players?

I talked over the phone this week to Serbia midfielder Nenad Kovacevic, who was out for a year after collapsing during a league match for his former club Red Star Belgrade in 2003. He added weight to a widespread opinion that there are too many matches in top-level football.

“The game is played at a torrid pace these days and the number of matches top-level players are involved in every season has reached a critical point,” said the 27-year old who now plays for French Ligue 1 side Lens.

“Puerta is not the first casualty but I certainly hope he will be the last.”

It’s a point that was also made in The Times by Gordon Taylor, the chief executive of the PFA.

Is it time to make a drastic cut in the number of games we ask our top players to play?

Zoran Milosavljevic

They sit proudly on top of their domestic league, have thrilled supporters with their lavish outlay on signings, have the backing of a billionaire tycoon and are desperate for Champions League success. No, not Chelsea, but Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk.

The club’s latest extravagant outlay was on 19-year-old Brazilian Willian for 14 million euros from Corinthians. His capture takes the clubs spending, which is backed by Rinat Akhmetov, to 60 million euros.

Italian striker Cristiano Lucarelli, Brazilian defender Ilsinho and Mexico attacking midfielder Neri Castillo are among the other signings, but Shakhtar have not just been investing on the playing side of things.

They now have a new 50,000-seat stadium on the way, although the return leg of their Champions League third qualifying round against Austrian side Salzburg on Wednesday night is in the smaller Olympiyskiy Stadium*.

“Shakhtar are becoming a team at a high European level with structure, the stadium and the players, their Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu said.

Shakhtar lost the first leg 1-0 but if they manage to pull through there will be many a club from one of the bigger leagues wary of being drawn to play them in the group phase.

Patrick Johnston

* Note: This sentence about the match venue was corrected at 1329 GMT on Thursday (hat tip Jerry P in the comments below)

The tragic news of the death of the 22-year-old Antonio Puerta, three days after he collapsed on the pitch in Sevilla’s opening league game against Getafe, has left Spanish football in shock.

Today is one of the saddest days in the history of Sevilla Football Club,” president José María del Nido said. “That diamond left foot of Antonio Puerta has left us, that left foot that changed our lives has left us.”

There are well over 5,000 comments from people expressing their condolences on Marca’s web site alone, while clubs from all over the country, and further afield, have expressed their sorrow, as Mark Elkington reports from Madrid.

The death has shocked people profoundly. Partly that’s because millions of people could see just how distressed he was as he collapsed during a match broadcast live on free-to-air TV in Spain. It’s also because Puerta, at the age of 22, genuinely seemed to have a brilliant future before him.

He looked ready to take a regular place in the Spanish national team, on the left side of defence or midfield. He had scored a cracking goal to send Sevilla through to the final of the UEFA Cup in 2006, making him the scorer of “the goal that changed our lives,” according to the Diario de Sevilla. He played a part as a sub in that year’s final victory over Middlesbrough and then played the whole of their 2007 UEFA Cup win against Espanyol, as well the King’s Cup final success against Getafe.

Sadly, it is by no means a unique case. As our Factbox shows, Hugo Cunha, Marcio Dos Santos, Miklos Feher, Maximiliano Patrick Ferreira, Marc-Vivien Foe, Dave Longhurst, Samuel Okwaraji and Serginho have all died in apparently similar circumstances in recent times. Marca mentions the cases of other players starting with Pedro Berruezo, also of Sevilla, back in 1973.

In Andalucia, where too many people take football far too seriously, the major shareholder of Sevilla rivals Real Betis, Manuel Ruiz de Lopera summed things up.

“We’re all Sevilla supporters today,” he said.

While Manchester United fans remember their favourite Ole Gunnar Solskjaer moments, Old Trafford boss Sir Alex Ferguson must be more worried about he can replace the newly retired Norwegian striker.

United boast plenty of attacking options enhanced by the close-season signings of Carlos Tevez, Nani and Anderson yet the way they have started the campaign has only underlined their need for an out-and-out goalscorer.

The Premier League champions have scored just three times in five matches, a run which, when allied to their total of two in five at the end of last season, must make worrying reading for Ferguson.

So will the United boss step in to buy another striker? At Soccerlens they certainly hope so. ”Football will miss ya Ole,” writes Conor. “But this could be exactly what needed to happen to show Sir Alex we dont have enough strikers.”

While Louis Saha scores goals when fit, injuries have restricted the Frenchman to only 12 appearances in 2007. In his absence the only other player seemingly capable of scoring the scruffy goals was Solskjaer. Even last season he got 11 of them.

As former Norway coach Egil Olsen put it, Solskjaer had the uncanny ability to be at the right place at the right time. Whether Ferguson can find a player to match that description before the transfer window closes remains to be seen.

Media reports suggest Nicolas Anelka is unsettled at Bolton but would he fit the bill for Ferguson? With deadline day three days away, we should know soon enough.

Simon Hart, London

So you have checked with your scouts, agreed a fee with the club, convinced the player your ambitions meet his and that his wage packet will reflect that. You’ve shown his WAG around the town, convinced her that you can accommodate all her shopping needs and after all that the British Home Office refuses to issue said player with a work permit.

Everton looked set to complete the signing of Nigerian international Yakubu Aiyegbeni from Middlesbrough over the weekend only for the Home Office to reject the application. Yakubu, who has played in England since 2003 with Portsmouth prior to his move to Middlesbrough, had not fulfilled the requirement of involvement in 75 percent of his countrys competitive internationals in the last two years.*

Everton expect to hear the verdict of an appeal on Wednesday. If they are unsuccessful it will be a hefty blow considering they have also missed out on Manuel Fernandes, after he opted to join Valencia instead.

Of course, Everton are not the first to fall victim of a rule which is not employed in the other major European leagues.

Arsenal eventually signed Croatian striker Eduardo da Silva in the close season after an appeal to the Home Office. The first application was rejected because the Brazilian-born striker had played only 50 per cent of Croatias internationals. The appeal was only accepted when Arsenal argued that da Silva had been involved for his adopted country in all their matches in the past year.

The ruling has also seen English clubs withdraw from bidding for some of South Americas most talented young players. Alexandre Pato, the 17-year-old midfielder who signed for Champions League winners AC Milan in the summer had originally attracted the attentions of Chelsea before they realised he would not qualify for a permit.

So is it time to get this peculiar ruling changed? Or is it worth keeping in place for the protection it offers to home grown players? 

Patrick Johnston, London

*Note: You can read the guidelines on work permits for international players here at workingintheuk.gov.uk

Italian soccer used to be seen as dull but these days it is anything but. This weekend’s opening set of matches had great goals, intriguing results and wacky touchline antics.

David Trezeguet grabbed a hat-trick as Juventus returned to the top flight after their match-fixing demotion with a 5-1 home win over Livorno. But as Martha notes on The Offside, Claudio Ranieri’s team were not as good as the scoreline suggests with three goals coming in the last five minutes. New signings have yet to gel fully and apart from Gianluigi Buffon, the defence looks shaky.

Roberto Mancini blamed the summer heat for Ivan Cordoba scoring a stoppage time own goal and keeper Julio Cesar being sent off in Inter’s 1-1 home draw with Udinese while Kaka inspired AC Milan to a 3-0 win at promoted Genoa, where Milan fans were banned because of fears of crowd violence.

After the match, Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani showed he will be as colourful as ever this season when he suggested that referees should spray paint a line 10 yards from a freekick to stop encroachment.
 
But the real excitement came at Parma where new Catania coach Silvio Baldini kicked his opposite number Domenico Di Carlo up the backside as he was sent to the stands for arguing with the officials.

If the next 37 rounds of matches are anything like this, we are in for a vintage season.

Mark Meadows, Milan

Saturday’s Madrid derby between nine-times European champions Real and 1974 runners-up Atletico was not the only meeting of two former European Cup finalists to take place over the weekend.

In England’s third division, where Leyton Orient top the table and Carlisle United follow close by, bottom of the table Leeds United visited 18th place Nottingham Forest in a match that pitted the European champions of 1979 and 1980 against the runners up of 1975.

A late winner from Jermaine Beckford gave Leeds a 2-1 victory over the double champions to maintain their perfect start to the season as they claw back a 15-point deduction.

The match created a footnote in European football history, as it was the first to be contested by two former finalists at such a lowly domestic level.

For Leeds in particular, it marks a sharp contrast not only to the 1975  team of Giles, Hunter and Bremner who lost 2-0 to Bayern Munich, but also to David OLearys side who reached the Champions League semi-final six years ago.

With both sides still commanding crowds of over 20,000 (on Saturday at the City Ground it was 25,237) and Forest planning to move to a new 50,000 capacity stadium by 2014, there is certainly hope that the two teams might reclaim past glories.

Or like Stade Reims, the French side who contested the first European Cup final in 1956 will they become all-but-forgotten postscripts in footballs history books?

Padraic Halpin, London

It was a case of normal service being resumed in the Premier League on Saturday, with Chelsea taking top spot, Manchester City losing their unbeaten record at Arsenal and Liverpool winning at Sunderland.

Man City and Wigan remain in the top four for the time being at least, but are now rather ominously followed by Liverpool and Arsenal, who each have a game in hand. Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal all showed on Saturday they are stubborn enough to be real title contenders, even if none of the three particularly excelled.

Liverpools 2-0 victory at Sunderland was comfortable if unspectacular. The big surprise was that Liverpool’s first, and the club’s 7,000th league goal, was scored by Momo Sissoko, a player who had never previously found the net for Liverpool. Arsenal ended Manchester Citys hundred per cent record with a solitary Cesc Fabregas goal. Frank Lampard decided Portsmouths fate in the same vein.

It all seems to point to another predictable tussle for Champions League places, doesn’t it? But if todays sense of it being back to business as usual feel upsets those who enjoy their surprises, a glance at the bottom three should provide light relief (see update).

How a morale boosting win for Martin Jol at Old Trafford would renew our acquaintance with unfamiliarity!

UPDATE: Well, it was a close run thing but Manchester United continued the trend on Sunday, tasting victory for the first time this season in a 1-0 win at home to Tottenham. While United were far from comfortable, a great goal from Nani proved just enough to move them out of the bottom three.

As they said at A Kick In The Grass, “There was a few positives to come out of this nerve racking match, but none bigger than the Reds first three points of the season and they were much needed.” Quite.

Padraic Halpin, London