Champions League Group B prospects

A look at the prospects for Real Madrid, AS Roma, Bayer Leverkusen and Dynamo Kiev in Group B of the Champions League this season:

REAL MADRID (SPAIN)

A first trophy-less season in five years prompted a major re-think at Real and forced club president Florentino Perez to stump up a hefty 45 million euros ($54.83 million) for a new centre-back partnership of Walter Samuel and Jonathan Woodgate that should prevent the defensive humiliations of last season.

Perez still had enough cash left over to buy England striker Michael Owen from Liverpool and honour his promise to bring a new 'galactico' to the club.

Ronaldo and Raul will start as the first choice pairing but should they fail to find the net, Real can now fall back on Owen and Fernando Morientes, the man whose goals fired Monaco into the final of last year's Champions League.

New coach Jose Antonio Camacho, who took over after the heavy-handed dismissal of Carlos Queiroz, should be able to prepare a more convincing bid for their 10th European Cup than in the past two disappointing campaigns.

COMMENT: Coach Jose Antonio Camacho: "We've faced Bayer Leverkusen in a European Cup final in 2002 and the other two teams are strong and deserve our respect too but we go into the competition looking to get as far as we can -- and I hope that would be the final."

AS ROMA

Roma have lost coach Fabio Capello, midfielder Emerson and centre-half Walter Samuel and following the recent resignation of coach Cesare Prandelli they have turned to former Germany coach Rudi Voeller as a late replacement.

As always Francesco Totti will be fundamental to their fortunes but this could also be the season that promising Antonio Cassano really emerges as a top performer.

The departure of Samuel to Real Madrid has left a hole in the defence, however, with young Matteo Ferrari relatively untried at this level.

Voeller will face his old club Bayer Leverkusen, where he was sports director before taking over as Germany boss.

COMMENT: Captain Francesco Totti: "The most positive thing for me is that we face Real again because those matches have brought me some luck. Bayer are one of the best in the Bundesliga and will be difficult opponents. I don't know much about Kiev but I do know they will be two tricky matches."

BAYER LEVERKUSEN

The Bundesliga's early form team after a 4-1 win over Bayern Munich, Leverkusen will hope to emulate and even surpass their 2002 experience when they lost 2-1 to Real in the final.

Leverkusen lost Brazil defender Lucio to Bayern but are used to having their talent pilfered by their German rivals and have drafed in fellow Brazilian defender Roque Junior from AC Milan and handy German midfielder Paul Freier from VfL Bochum.

Leverkusen acknowledge the battle is more for second place behind Real, who they host in the first match.

COMMENT: Assistant coach Ulf Kirsten: "If we were afraid we might as well just apply to be removed from the competition but I don't think we have anything to fear. Real are the top team. The other three are fighting for second place."

DYNAMO KIEV

Dynamo Kiev, a perennial Champions League team, are aiming to improve on their showing last year when they failed to get past the first round.

Ukraine's champions are unbeaten since former Dynamo captain Josef Sabo took over as coach for a third time, replacing Alexei Mikhailichenko last month after a shock 2-1 home defeat by Trabzonspor in the first leg of their Champions League qualifier.

But they beat the Turkish club 2-0 in the second leg two weeks later to reach the Champions League group proper for the eighth consecutive year.

Now Dynamo want to emulate their 1998-99 run when they beat Real Madrid 3-1 on aggregate after a double by Andriy Shevchenko to reach the semi-finals for the first time.

COMMENT: President Igor Surkis: "I'm pleased we're starting with an away match at Roma as it gives us the chance to break a recent bad streak. For the last few years we started with home wins but couldn't make it through to the next stage. Hopefully now, starting away from home could bring us good luck."