United drawn with Celtic ahead of Euro title defence

MONACO (AFP) - Holders Manchester United were drawn with Scottish champions Celtic, Spain's Villarreal and Denmark's Aalborg in Thursday's draw in Monaco for this season's Champions League group phase.

United, who also won the English Premiership title, were drawn in Group E while Chelsea will meet AS Roma, Bordeaux of France and Romanian debutants Cluj in Group A.

Adding to the flavour of home and away 'Battle of Britain' clashes will be the fact that Celtic are coached by Gordon Strachan, who was a player under United boss Sir Alex Ferguson both at Old Trafford and Aberdeen beforehand.

The clubs also met in the Champions League group stages two seasons ago.

Celtic edged their home game 1-0 and United won theirs 3-2.