United and Barca complete semi-final lineup

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By Zoran Milosavljevic

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Manchester United completed a 3-0 aggregate win over AS Roma on Wednesday to join Liverpool and Chelsea in the Champions league semi-finals as the three English teams repeated last season’s success.

They will be joined by 2006 winners Barcelona, who beat German side Schalke 1-0 at the Nou Camp to secure a 2-0 aggregate victory after Ivorian midfielder Yaya Toure scored shortly before halftime.

Liverpool face Chelsea in the Champions League semi-finals for the third time in four seasons after beating them in 2005 and last year while United, who lost last term to eventual winners AC Milan, play Barcelona.

United manager Alex Ferguson was looking forward to a return to the Nou Camp where they won the 1999 Champions League, beating Bayern Munich 2-1 in the final with stoppage time goals.

"We will want to go there and show we have a very good team," he told Sky Sports. "Barcelona have a wonderful history, they are a great club, but we have to go there and be positive.

"If we have a fully fit squad I think we have a very good chance (of overcoming Barcelona)," added Ferguson, who has had several injury problems.

A Carlos Tevez goal aftr 70 minutes gave United a 1-0 win at Old Trafford on Wednesday as the English champions maintained their record of never losing a knockout .....continued below

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They did so for the 14th time after they weathered some nervy first-half moments, including a penalty which Roma midfielder Daniele de Rossi blazed over the bar on the half hour following Wes Brown’s challenge on Mancini.

United never looked like repeating last year’s 7-1 home drubbing of Roma at the same stage of the competition but Tevez sealed their passage when he headed an Owen Hargreaves cross past Doni.

At the Nou Camp, a simple finish from Yaya Toure booked Barcelona’s berth in the last four after a furious start in which Schalke had 10 shots in the opening 22 minutes.

Both goalkeepers made several good saves before Yaya Toure scored from close range, scrambling in a deflected cross by 17-year-old Bojan Krkic that fell kindly to him after it was cleared off the line.

Schalke ran out of steam after their early onslaught and Barcelona held on comfortably in the second half to the relief of manager Frank Rijkaard, under fire for the team’s poor recent domestic form.

(Editing by Padraic Halpin)