MONACO, August 26- The Champions League group stage draw held here Thursday pitted titleholders Inter Milan against Tottenham with Real Madrid, now coached by Inter's former boss Jose Mourinho, facing AC Milan.
Inter, now in the care of former Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez, also have German side Werder Bremen and Dutch champions FC Twente for company in Group A along with Spurs, making their debut in the world’s most lucrative club competition.
Group B features last season’s semi-finalists Lyon, Schalke, Benfica and Hapoel Tel Aviv.
Three-time European champions Manchester United have a trip across the border to play Scottish giants Rangers, with Spanish outfit Valencia and Bursaspor of Turkey completing Group C.
United and Rangers were drawn together at the same stage in 2003/2004 with United winning 3-0 at home and 1-0 at Ibrox.
The 2009 winners Barcelona, one of eight top seeds, were thrown into Group D with Greek outfit Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen, and Russian league winners Rubin Kazan.
Bayern Munich, last season’s beaten finalists at Mourinho’s new home, the Bernabeu stadium, will have to extricate themselves from Group E where they face Roma, Basel and CFR Cluj.
Chelsea, defeated by United in the Moscow final in 2008, are in Group F with Marseille, the only French team to lift the trophy, Spartak Moscow and Slovakian side Zilina.
Group G looks the toughest of all with three former winners, Real, AC Milan and Ajax.
Real and AC Milan are facing each other at this stage of the competition for the second season in a row.
Completing the cast list for this mini-league are surprise package from France, Auxerre.
The road to the 2011 final at the new Wembley stadium starts next month with four English Premier League sides in the mix, and the last of this quartet Arsenal were put in Group H.
The Gunners face a long trip to Ukraine to play Shakhtar Donetsk, and will also tackle Sporting Braga and Partizan Belgrade.
The rules of the draw are such that none of the English sides can play each other before the quarter-finals.
The first round of group games will take place on September 14 and 15, with the final taking place at Wembley on May 28
