Barcelona, Bordeaux, Sevilla and Inter Milan hold the upper hand in their UEFA Champions League second round ties after the second set of first leg games.

With the first four ties being played last week, the rest of the second round ties commenced this week in the new format introduced by UEFA authorities.

On Tuesday night, Zlatan Ibrahimovic spared Barcelona’s blushes in the Mercedes-Benz Arena as he cancelled out Cacau’s header in a 1-1 draw with Stuttgart.

The Germans took a half-time lead through Brazilian-born Cacau, but Sweden international Ibrahimovic evened up the tie soon after the restart and the Catalan giants will be overwhelming favourites ahead of the second leg.

Elsewhere on Tuesday night, Laurent Blanc’s impressive Bordeaux side took a creditable 1-0 win away from the Karaiskakis Stadium against Olympiakos.

Michael Ciani got a victorious head onto Yoann Gourcuff’s cross on the stroke of half time to send the French champions on their way to victory.

With home advantage and a slender lead, Bordeaux seem in complete control of their tie as they look to continue their surprisingly good form in the competition this season.

Meanwhile, at the San Siro, Jose Mourinho’s Inter Milan grabbed a 2-1 win over his former club Chelsea in a pulsating encounter.

Diego Milito got the hosts off to the perfect start when he grabbed a third minute opener with a neat finish. Five minutes after the restart, Salomon Kalou got the English side back in the tie with his effort, which Inter keeper Julio Cesar should have kept out.

The equaliser was short lived, however, with Esteban Cambiasso restoring the Italians’ lead four minutes later. Chelsea piled on the pressure late on but were unable to find a second, making interesting reading for the return leg at Stamford Bridge.

At the Luzhniki Stadium, Sevilla earned a 1-1 draw to hold the upper hand in their tie with CSKA Moscow. Alvaro Negreda gave the Spanish side a half-time lead with a tap in from Jesus Navas’ fiercely driven cross.

Former Liverpool winger Mark Gonzalez got the Russian outfit back into the tie with a ferociously struck shot from all of 30 yards, which sailed right into the top corner.

The Spanish side should take nothing for granted ahead of the return leg, but bookies will make Sevilla favourites to progress to the quarter finals.

Manchester United are preparing their first attempt to try and sign a player using the Cristiano Ronaldo transfer cash. United are reportedly piecing together a bid for Inter Milan striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, as they look to bring in a high profile target to replace their former Portuguese play maker.

United have been knocked by a lot of people in the game over the last two weeks or so because of their failure to move in securing the signatures of a lot of influential players who are all moving to Spain. They have just missed out on signing Karim Benzema from Lyon and Franck Ribery of Bayern Munich looks set to follow his fellow Frenchman to Real Madrid.

There is no dancing around the fact that United need a big and high calibre striker, as they are short up front. The arrival of Michael Owen at Old Trafford was nothing more than a stop gap move and they were always going to be linked with a big name player sooner or later. United are going to need a big player that has the ability to change a game instantly and someone that can bring other people into a match just by his presence at the top of the pitch.

Whether Ibrahimovic is the right person for United is highly debatable. Sir Alex Ferguson clearly rates the six-foot plus tall Swede but a lot of pundits would call it a bad move as he rarely turns up in a lot of big games. Furthermore he is well liked by Jose Mourinho who will be incredibly reluctant to let the player leave unless it is in a huge deal.

This is a deal that probably wouldn’t justify the player and United could well be better off looking at other options. The English champions still have a lot of time before the next season starts and they should not panic about trying to find a striker to lead their attack in the coming campaign.

It is easy to see why United may be interested in such a player because he does have a lot going for him. He is tall and very quick on his feet for a player of his height. United will need a big target man up front as they will not now be able to play their slick and aggressive passing football as Ronaldo was so integral to the success of this style of play.

Although a lot of people have called Ibrahimovic quite selfish in the past a move to United and England could end up revitalising his career. The player has already hinted that he wants to move away from the Italian game, which apparently does not suit his style of play and is too slow. He would probably be quite grateful for a move to English football and would therefore be a good signing as United are going to need someone who will sweat blood for the side.

The point is however that a lot of people are supposedly telling Sir Alex Ferguson to steer clear of any bid he is considering making for him. He could get a lot more for his money and the Swedish front man has not really done enough to justify such a huge price tag.

In a football world that is becoming increasingly dominated by cash, Inter are clearly trying to make the most out of a bad situation and United need to keep their business heads on otherwise they could well end up being ripped off.

Ferguson will have a long list of targets and he needs to weigh up how important each one is to his United side. It is important to remember that Ferguson will probably now be considering reinventing his side as he lost two very influential players so far this summer in Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez.

Ferguson has a very good idea of where he wants to take the current side and if Ibrahimovic fits into this philosophy then United will be hard pushed to find someone to match his characteristics. However, they really do need to proceed with caution because the Swede can be very temperamental at times and United will need someone who can raise his level of performance consistently.

Ibrahimovic cannot always do this easily and on a consistent basis and many will say that this, equipped with his slight ego, are the two main reasons why Ferguson should not go any where near the player. It will be interesting to see how the move develops as United could do a lot better.

However, if they do sign one of the top scorers in the Italian leagues then they will have to work very hard in basing the team around him. Ibrahimovic does not strike the ordinary fan as a player that can adapt himself to a team and this will make United’s job a lot harder as they restructure to have another go at European and domestic success.

It is impossible to say at this moment in time whether it would be a gamble that pays off because the move has so many advantages and disadvantages. The money being talked about is a lot of cash in the current climate and United should only spend it if they are absolutely certain that this player is the person to help them move forward.

They may let the move go because the doubts are too big to ignore. Being the top scorer in Italy is totally different to being the top scorer in England where the league is a lot more difficult to play in.

Ibrahimovic is a player that relies on time on the ball and not being pressured in order to make space and bring other players into the side. These are things that he would not get in the Premier League and they are things that mean United may be better off in going for another target. I’m sure with this player that if Real Madrid came in and tried to poach him, United probably wouldn’t be too annoyed.

Inter Milan manager, Jose Mourinho, has moved to try and sign Deco and Ricardo Carvalho from his previous club Chelsea. Carvalho is said to be growing frustrated at his inability to get back into Chelsea’s main plans and joins Deco in wanting a move away from West London.

Deco said last week that a move away from Chelsea was a virtual certainty for him and Mourinho still highly rates Carvalho, which could see him fund a double swoop for the pair. It would be a good move for both parties. On the one hand Carlo Ancelotti will want to get rid of the baggage at Stamford Bridge and Mourinho will be getting two players who he believes can help decrease the gap between Inter and the other teams in Europe.

Both of the Chelsea stars would also profit from the fact that the Italian league is slower than the top-flight in England. Both Deco and Carvalho are not in the infancy of their careers any more and it could be a move which sees retirement put off for a little while longer as they adapt to a new league and way of life.

Inter president, Massimo Moratti said: “”[Jose] Mourinho has asked us for Deco and Carvalho and we are working towards making him happy. Our wish is to sign both players and I have seen that the players’ intention is to join us. We still haven’t reached an agreement with Chelsea but I think we will do in a short time.”

“We are interested in Carvalho primarily for the Champions League. He has the right experience, he is calm under pressure and brings experience in the defensive line. Our coach has guaranteed quality and I have every intention to make him happy. Deco will have two tasks: to do well immediately and to help Coutinho mature as a player. Coutinho will arrive next season and plays in the same role as Deco.”

Inter were also reported to be interested in signing Franck Ribery from Bayern Munich, but as the Germans have put such a high price on the Frenchman they will need to sell first. This generated the news that they quoted a massive price for Zlatan Ibrahimovic to Real Madrid and Mouirnho could be forced into smaller signings before taking the massive ones.

The best part of this deal for Inter is the experience they will be getting. A lot of activity is taking place in the transfer market which is threatening to destroy the English dominance of European football. Real Madrid and Inter Milan will be bigger and tougher propositions next season and Mourinho will be working all the time to try and decrease this gap.

Chelsea will benefit by losing two unhappy players but they will struggle to be able to replace the experience and wealth of knowledge that Deco and Carvalho had during their time at Chelsea. Their loss is another clubs gain. However, it was a move that had to happen and everyone seems satisfied.

In his first season in charge, manager Jose Mourinho guided Inter Milan to their fourth straight Italian Serie A title with three games to spare after second-place AC Milan lost 2-1 at Udinese on Saturday May 16th. AC Milan went into the game at Udinese seven points behind their cross town rivals with three matches left in the season and had to win it to have any kind of chance at all.

It is Inter’s fourth straight championship and their 17th overall. Juventus holds the record with 27 titles. They also become the first club in over 50 years to win four Serie A titles in a row.  In additon, they go down as only the third in the league’s 111-year history to win four on the trot after Juventus won five in a row from 1931-35 and Torino did it in 1943 and 1946-49.

Inter supporters didn’t take long to get together in Piazza Duomo, Milan’s central square, to celebrate after AC’s loss while television screens showed the Inter players dancing at their team retreat. It was also a special day for club management as well as Mourinho, the only foreign coach in Serie A, has now won championships in three different countries. He also won with Porto of Portugal and twice with Chelsea in England.

While his team was heading out to celebrate, the Portuguese wizard joked on the club’s website: “I’m a bit angry because the team should already be in bed, but they have decided to take the bus and go to Milan. But I understand their desire to celebrate. For my part I still don’t feel a symbol of Inter. There’s still some work to do on this. We’ll try and do it next year.”

Inter’s president Massimo Moratti also had an extra reason to celebrate the title as it fell on his 64th birthday.

“It’s the first time I’ve celebrated a birthday by winning a scudetto,” he stated. “They did very well to give me this present.” Moratti also said he hoped star striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic would stay with the club.

As for AC Milan, they still need three points to guarantee themselves an automatic Champions League spot for next year and there is still confusion over the status of manager Carlo Ancelotti, who is being rumoured everyday to be taking over from Dutchman Guus Hiddink at English Premier League side Chelsea when the season is over. Ancelotti keeps denying it, but the London club hasn’t named a replacement for Hiddink as of yet as he heads back to his full time job as the manager of Russia’s national team.

While Inter did a fine job this season and deserved the title, let’s put the four in a row in proper perspective. They were basically given the first title in 2006, as the Italian courts stripped juventus of the crown because of a serious match-fixing scandal.

Their second title came while Juventus were playing in Serie B because of punishment from the scandal and last year Juventus were basically rebuilding in their first season back in the Serie A.

Last year’s manager Roberto Mancini was given the boot at the end of the season after a disagreement with Moratti, and Mourinho has kept the ship on its course.

While Inter may not always play the prettiest football in Italy, their sheer physical power and the timely goals of Ibrahimovic have made them pretty much unbeatable this season and have only lost three league games.

In fact, let’s give them credit where it’s deserved. They even beat Siena 3-0 today after a night of celebrating their championship.