Europe's big names face sharp foes in early stages Champions League

Just over a month remains to the start of Europe's premier football competition, the UEFA Champions League, and the preliminary stages are well under way with a range of european squads battling for the few lucrative spaces group stages.

Big name British clubs in particular have been dealt a tricky hand; Arsenal face two legs against Czech domestic double winners Sparta Prague who will look to strike a blow at the London club recently left looking pretty weak with the departure of star striker Thierry Henry. 2006 runners up Liverpool on the other hand face staunch opponents in the form of Toulouse looking to take an optimistic approach after their domestic defeat in the first game of the French Championnat. Manager, and Liverpool "hero", Rafael Benitez sounded content with the draw close to home after having travelled as far as Hong Kong in pre-season training with the North England club.

For Italian Serie A big guns Lazio the draw was equally unfavourable, experienced coach Delio Rossi named the opponents Dinamo Bucharest as the "most solid of this stage" and noted the fact that while his Italians were still enjoying the ease of pre-season warm ups, the Romanians will have had the benefit of 5 domestic games, in a league that last year they dominated and finished significativly ahead of second place. He ended stoically, stating that "the draw has been made and we now know who we face, we shall prepare in the best way possible".

The competition itself will start with a bang on September 18th with the biggest final in world club football final to be played in Moscow on May 21st 2008.