Juventus return to C.L. action in 3rd round

Artmedia stand between Juve and successful return

Mon 11 Aug, 03:01 AM

BELGRADE (Reuters) - Juventus end a two-year European exile due to Italy's match-fixing scandal when they face Artmedia Bratislava in the first leg of the Champions League third qualifying round in Turin on Wednesday.
Having worked their way back from Italy's second division, where they were demoted in 2006 for their part in the scandal, Juventus are looking for a fresh start in Europe's premier club competition which they won in 1985 and 1996.

Fellow Italians Fiorentina, who were also embroiled in the scandal, host Slavia Prague in Florence in the only match on Tuesday with the other 15 the following night.

With 16 places still available in the lucrative 32-team group stage, former winners Liverpool, Barcelona and Olympique Marseille will start as favourites to go through.

Liverpool are away to Belgian champions Standard Liege while Marseille, who kicked off their French Ligue 1 campaign with a 4-4 draw at Stade Rennes on Saturday, start as firm favourites against Norwegians Brann Bergen.

Barcelona, winners in 2006, have a fairly straightforward job of getting past Polish champions Wisla Krakow with new coach Pep Guardiola eager to prove there is life at the Nou Camp after Ronaldinho's close-season transfer to AC Milan.
Although Argentina's Lionel Messi is away playing for his country in the Olympic soccer tournament in Beijing, Guardiola will expect his side to fire on all cylinders.

HEAVYWEIGHT DUEL
Barca's Spanish Primera Liga rivals Atletico Madrid have the tougher task of eliminating Germany's Schalke 04 in the only heavyweight duel of the final qualifying round.
The cauldron of Atletico's Vicente Calderon stadium, the venue of the return leg in two weeks' time, may give the nine-times Spanish champions the edge over the 1997 UEFA Cup winners.

Arsenal, who came closest to winning the title when they reached the 2006 final against Barcelona, visit Dutch side Twente Enschede, who are coached by former England manager Steve McClaren.
A youthful Arsenal will be buoyed by winning the weekend's Amsterdam tournament after overturning a 2-0 deficit against hosts Ajax for a 3-2 victory and then drawing 1-1 with Sevilla.
But they also need to be wary of Twente, hungry for European success under McClaren after they narrowly avoided going into administration in 2003.

Turkey's Fenerbahce hope to at least emulate last season's success of reaching the last eight after luring Spain's Euro 2008 striker Daniel Guiza and coach Luis Aragones, who steered the Spaniards to the European Championship title in June. They face Serbian champions Partizan Belgrade who have been hit hard by injuries, suspensions and a row with Olympic national team coach Miroslav Djukic after he refused to release two of their players for the tie.


some interesting ties

 

Wouldnt count out artmedia still gives me the shivers that team, but looks like some quality games coming up this week cant wait.

 

thank * the champs leauge is comin back

 

Looking forward to seeing Juve back in the champions league, I must say!

 

Who are rangers playi... oh. Never mind

 

Anybody watching the Dynamo Kyiv match against Spartak Moscow right now? Great game. The game is in Moscow and Kyiv has the lead at HT 2-1.

 

cmon the juve!!!

 

Watched the re-run of our 4-3 win over Juve earlier. Brilliant stuff.

Lubo terrorised them and Sutty smacked in a left-foot volley.

 

good times

 

yes that Chris Sutton volley against Juve was SPECIAL!!!

I still have bitter memories of Juventus cheating to a home 3-2 win over Celtic, everyone..... remember Nicola Amourso's dive that won them a pen at the end.

That was sure heart breaking and I have hated Juventus from that moment on!

Petrov and Larsson scored I remember

 

Yeh the left foot volley was stunning. Remember the 3-2 game too, petrov free-kick and Larsson pen brought us back into the game before being robbed at the end.

 

I remember sticking a quid or something on 4-2 for Celtic before that game. Typical lol

 

Yeah, I remember being at an Aberdeen home game shortly after and Petrov scored another free-kick similar to the Juve game. Also the sheep chanting "2 Amorusos"

 

LOL yes I remember Petrov's free kick against Aberdeen! A rocket!!

But the best one was against Dundee. It was seriously like 40 yards out and it was Petrov's first game back from a broken leg. It was a screamer! Does anyone else here remember it? Also Im sure that season Petrov scored a free kick against Rangers too which Klos kind of * up lol.

Ah I do miss Petrov

 

Yeh he scored one against Rangers two, sure Thomo scored the other. Don't know what happened to Petrov taking free kick after a while he just stopped.

 

I think it was cos Petrov didnt really curl the ball. He just kind of blasted it hard as he could. It worked a few times but I suspect most of them went well wide or whatever. At that time there were some pretty good free kick takers like Moravcik and Thompson and even Larsson so Petrov got bumped off lol

Actually I wish that some one could make a goal compliation of Petrov's goals at Celtic cos there were some pretty good goals. I remember his first great goal for Celtic in 1999, it was a half volley against Motherwell at home which he chested down then smacked it home.