For the vast majority of football teams in 2011, including group minnows BATE Borisov and Viktoria Plzen, two dates with the European champions can immediately be written off as a pair of defeats, but for the Rossoneri it is a DNA test.

It’s that DNA which staff, players and fans alike claim sets Milan apart from the rest of Europe … nay, the rest of the world. ‘Il club piu titolato del mondo’ it says on the Rossoneri shirt – the most successful club in the world – representing their haul of 18 representative trophies which is matched only by Boca Juniors.

And of course seven of those titles are in the Champions League, with their haul of five successes in the last 22 years matching anything any club barring Real Madrid can boast in their entire history. Winning is in the blood.

That’s why a single Serie A triumph after seven years in the dark is enough of a catalyst for talk of European honours immediately after. Milan didn’t become the Milan we know by standing still, and this summer’s Scudetto preceded much talk of the Champions League being the natural next step. That’s just their way.

But tipping any side outside of Catalunya these days is a tricky old business, such is their hold over the game right now. We’re watching the greatest team in a generation; the best since Il Grande Milan swept all before them – Barca’s ‘Dream Team’ included – in the early nineties.

The retention of their European crown this season would surely silence any remaining doubters. But can’t the same be said of Massimiliano Allegri’s side?

Every time they take a dip, they seem to bounce back with a Champions League title. They are short in several areas on and off the pitch at the moment, but that claim could have been levelled at them in 2007 as well. There was no Barcelona back then though … at least not this Barcelona.

But one of the fascinating things about the clashes with the Catalans in September and November is the sub-plot surrounding Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The giant Swede quit the Camp Nou after only a year in Spain last summer, extending his amazing League title run to eight years at five clubs upon arriving at San Siro.

Much was said about his relationship with Barca coach Pep Guardiola, not least by Ibra himself. “He always wants to look like a philosopher. He reminds me a bit of Mahatma Gandhi when he is preparing his team. He was my only problem at Barcelona,” said the striker in a string of broadsides at the winner of two Champions Leagues as a coach and one as a player.

And when Johan Cruyff weighed in, Ibra responded: “I think Cruyff should be in a mental hospital with Guardiola.”

It was big talk from a big man, but someone constantly slated for not being a ‘big game’ player. Yet if he and his club are going to have what it takes to go all the way in 2011-12, then he has to take that brashness out onto the Camp Nou pitch.

For the Barca clashes come at the perfect time for Ibrahimovic and the Rossoneri. If they are going to launch a serious attack for an eighth European crown, then they need to know where they stand, where they need to improve, what they’re already doing right. And the fact that the games come two months apart will also help in gauging their progression.

Nobody WANTED to draw Barcelona, but now that they’ve got them, the Rossoneri can make the most of this opportunity. Even a battering on match-day one could be a valuable lesson, and we might not know just who comes out of that game the better until the final at the Allianz Arena on May 19.

FULL DRAW GROUP A Bayern Munich Villarreal Manchester City Napoli

GROUP B Inter CSKA Moscow Lille Trabzonspor

GROUP C Manchester United Benfica Basel Otelul Galati

GROUP D Real Madrid Olympique Lyonnais Ajax Dinamo Zagreb

GROUP E Chelsea Valencia Bayer Leverkusen Genk

GROUP F Arsenal Olympique Marseille Olympiakos Borussia Dortmund

GROUP G Porto Shakhtar Donetsk Zenit St Petersburg APOEL Nicosia

GROUP H Barcelona AC Milan Bate Borisov Viktoria Plzen