2009 UEFA Champions Q3 League Preview

Tuesday, July 28

Sparta Prague-Panathinaikos: The tie of the night may well take place in the Czech capital Prague where perennial Champions League participants Sparta meet up with Panathinaikos. The Greek side under the stewardship of  Henk ten Cate had an excellent run to the round of 16 last season, where they were unlucky to lose to Villarreal over the course of the two legs. The Greek side have been busy in the transfer window snapping up Djibril Cisse from Sunderland and one of the stand-out performers at the European U-21 Championships in Sweden, centre-back Mattias Bjarsmyr.

It’s been five-years since Panathinaikos have tasted victory in the Greek Super League with arch-rivals Olympiakos dominating, and a third-place finish in 2008-09 did not meet expectations. However, at least a win in the end of season play-offs assured them of a place in the Champions League Qualification round. The pressure will therefore be on Panathinaikos to come through.

Sparta Prague are in a similar position to Panathinaikos, in that they have also slipped behind their main rivals in recent domestic competition after finishing second to Slavia. Sparta’s policy of opting for experience in the form of the like of Patrick Berger and Tomas Repka hasn’t really paid off yet, and they finished six points off the top of the league.

Anderlecht-Sivasspor: This match pits one of Europe’s great names against one of the fastest developing teams currently. One of Belgium’s traditional clubs, and at one time a real European super-power, Anderlecht have fallen on hard times. They embarrassingly lost to surprise packages BATE Borisov from Belarus in the qualification for the Champions League in August and a play-off defeat against Standard Liege at the end saw them relinquish the title.

Sivasspor meanwhile are positively on the up after snatching an impressive second place last season and finishing just five points off the pace set by winners Besiktas. It was only their fourth ever season in the top-flight in Turkey after playing at an amateur level just under 25 years ago. After failing to reach the UEFA Cup via the Intertoto Cup last season, Sivasspor will be aiming for a continental improvement at the expense of Anderlecht.

The other matches on Tuesday pit Azerbaijan Champions FK Baku against Levski Sofia and Kazakh champions FC Aktobe against Israeli side Maccabi Haifa, who hammered Northern Irish side Glentoran 10-0 on aggregate. 

Wednesday, July 29

Celtic-Dynamo Moscow: The Bhoys will be taking on some stiff Eastern European opposition in the shape of Dynamo Moscow in arguably the tie of the round. New Celtic boss Tony Mowbray will be leading his side into their first competitive match after making the switch from West Bromwich Albion. However, Celtic will have to cope with the loss of several experienced players including Shunsuke Nakamura, who moved to Espanyol, Paul Hartley and Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink, both of whom left the club. 

A good result in the Wembley Cup against Spurs indicated there’s plenty of confidence in the team, but with finances tighter than ever in Scotland following the collapse of the TV channel, qualification for the Champions League is absolutely vital.

Celtic will have a tough task on their hands, as Dynamo are currently midway through their season, and potentially far fitter than the first ever British winners of the trophy. The Muscovite side are just four points off the top of the Russian Premier League after managing third last season, and are also handily placed to mount an assault on leaders Rubin in the closing stages of the season. Dynamo’s intention to compete with the best in Russia was signalled by the recent acquisition of Alexandr Kerzakhov from Sevilla, and his seven goals in just 11 appearances this season underlines his importance to the team. 

Sporting CP-FC Twente: After finishing second in the 2008-09 season four points off Porto, Sporting will be keen to bounce back into the Champions League after making it through to the knock-out stage last season. They exited the tournament though with their tails between their legs after a 12-1 aggregate hammering by Bayern Munich in the round of 16.

Sporting will be looking to take advantage of FC Twente, who have lost several key players over the course of the summer after they impressed with a second placed finish in the Eredivisie last time round. Whilst Sporting have managed to keep hold of the majority of their stars, such as Joao Moutinho, despite renewed interest in him from the Premier League, FC Twente have fared less well losing the like of exciting left-winger Elia to Hamburg and Marko Arnautovic, who is reportedly set to join Inter Milan. 

With the Portuguese giants favourites to progress, former England boss Steve McClaren, who did an excellent job in his first season in the Netherlands, will have his work cut out to prevent a repeat of last season, when Arsenal prevailed over Twente in the third round.

Shakhtar Donetsk-FCU Politehnica Timisoara: The UEFA Cup holders may well feel slightly aggrieved at having to start so early in a bid to re-establish their European credentials barely months after their success against Werder Bremen. However, after finishing second in the Ukrainian league behind Dynamo Kiev, Shakhtar have it all to do again. 

Whilst Shakhtar are evolving into European heavyweights, their opponents are relative novices at this level. After finishing second in the Romanian league last season, their highest ever position, profiting from the relative failure of the like of Steaua, Dinamo and Cluj, they have a chance of upsetting the odds against Shakhtar.

Slovan Bratislava-Olympiakos: The five-time consecutive Greek Champions Olympiakos have a potentially tough tie against the Slovak champions. After dominating the early Slovak Championships, Slovan had to wait 10 years until reclaiming the trophy in 2009. They were given a fright in round 2 by little fancied Zrinjski Mostar from Bosnia; after loosing the away tie 1-0, Slovan were obliged to mount a comeback to win their home leg 4-0 to set this tie up.

Olympiakos have been busy over the summer improving the squad with the acquisition of the ex-Premiership pair of Matt Derbyshire and Olof Mellberg. The Greeks have shown well in the Champions League in the past, especially at home, where they’ve proved to be more than a handful for Europe’s best, and will be eager to repeat their success by first overcoming Slovan.

Partizan Belgrade’s reward for thrashing Welsh side Rhyl is a trip to Cyprus to play Apoel Nicosia. Partizan will be looking to bounce back after the loss of several key players over the summer including Nenad Milijas, who joined Wolves recently, but their outstanding performance against the Welsh part-timers indicates they could be stern opposition. 

Danish champions FC Copenhagen had an excellent group stage in the Champions League last season pipping Celtic to third spot in the group before eventually bowing out to Manchester City in the Round of 32 in the UEFA Cup. The seven-time Danish champions have an all Scandinavian tie against Norwegian side Stabaek, who should have the advantage in terms of fitness.

After a hard fought match against Swedish side Kalmar, Hungarian Champions Debrecen, under the management of former Austrian international Andreas Herzog, travel to Estonia to play Levadia Tallinn. This match is Tallinn’s reward for pulling off potentially the shock of round two by knocking out Polish side Wisla Krakow, after beating them away after draw 1-1 at home. 
 
Moldovan side Sheriff scrambled through against Inter Turku thanks to narrow 1-0 wins in both legs, and now have Slavia Prague in their sights. The Czech Champions will be looking to repeat last season’s success after stunning Ajax at this stage in 2008-09.

FC Zurich host Maribor in Switzerland hopeful of making it through to round 4, whilst it promises to be a very even contest in Latvia between Ventspils and Belarusian side BATE Borisov, who knocked out Levski Sofia and Anderlecht last season. In the final match of the round, ambitious Austrian side Red Bull Salzburg come up against Dinamo Zagreb from Croatia. 

Matches in Full:

Tuesday, July 28

Sparta Prague (Cze)-Panathinaikos (Gre)

Anderlecht (Belg)-Sivasspor (Tur)

FK Baku (Aze)-Levski Sofia (Bul)

FC Aktobe (Kaz)-Maccabi Haifa (Isr)

Walter Townsend, Goal.com