Local battles in UEFA Cup semis
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Reuters
OluÅŸturulma Tarihi: Nisan 30, 2009 00:00
LONDON - Two spots for the UEFA Cup final, which will be played on May 20 at Istanbul's Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium, are yet to be taken by Ukrainian and German teams. Werder Bremen and Hamburg play their semifinal first leg game tonight, while Shakhtar Donetsk take on Dynamo Kiev.
It was already known that Istanbul will witness a battle between German and Ukrainian teams in the UEFA Cup final on May 20, but still, the question of which ones is yet to be answered, as the semifinal first leg games are tonight.
German sides Hamburg SV and Werder Bremen play against each other, while Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk matches up with Dynamo Kiev to win the berths to the cup final that will be played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.
Hamburg SV, who knocked out Galatasaray, the last Turkish team in the competition, is brimming with confidence ahead of its UEFA Cup semifinal against Werder Bremen tonight despite losing a German Cup penalty shootout to its opponent last week, coach Martin Jol said.Â
"They have yet to beat us. We played a 2-1 in the league and then a 1-1 in the Cup," Jol told reporters. "We will go to Bremen with lots of confidence." Hamburg midfielder Piotr Trochowski said his side wanted revenge for the Cup defeat.
"Bremen is not better than us. Look at where Bremen is in the Bundesliga. We have played a superb season and maybe we will get our revenge in the UEFA Cup."
Hamburg is fifth in the German League but only three points behind leader Wolfsburgh with five weeks to go, while Werder Bremen is left far behind the title race and has only UEFA Cup and German Cup to play for.
Injury concerns
Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf, whose team is 10th in the Bundesliga, for once does not have any serious injury concerns apart from defender Petri Pasanen while Jol has fitness worries over striker Mladen Petrict.
The northern German derby is not the only domestic battle.
Ukraine's top two sides meet in the country's capital as Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk extend their long rivalry to European competition.
Dynamo, who eliminated compatriots Metalist Kharkiv in the last 16, hold a 12-point lead over second-placed Shakhtar in the Ukrainian championship and has a good recent home record against its rival.
Midfielder Roman Yeryomenko and forward Artyom Kravets are battling to be fit for the opening leg.
"We hope Yeryomenko's condition is not too serious and he will be ready. Kravets, however, remains a question mark. We want him to examined by doctors abroad. Only then will we be able to give an assessment," Kiev coach Yuri Syomin told the club's Web site.
Shakhtar, in its first European semifinal, won the previous league match between the two clubs this season 1-0 in Donetsk in November.
Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu, who signed a new two-year contract after the quarterfinal victory over Olympique Marseille, already has one eye on the return leg in Donetsk on May 7 with the Romanian unhappy about the state of the pitch at the club's Olimpiyskyy stadium.
"The Olimpiyskyy pitch destroys our play. I feel ashamed to make my players perform on a pitch like this," he told the club's Web site. "They are unable to launch a decent attack and allow the opponents to keep all 11 men behind the ball. The basis of our play is technique and pace."
Lucescu is a familiar face for Turkish football, as he coached Galatasaray and BeÅŸiktaÅŸ, and led both to one Turkish league titles each. He was at the helm when BeÅŸiktaÅŸ won the title in its centennial in 2003, a year after clinching the league with Galatasaray.
German sides Hamburg SV and Werder Bremen play against each other, while Ukraine’s Shakhtar Donetsk matches up with Dynamo Kiev to win the berths to the cup final that will be played at the Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.
Hamburg SV, who knocked out Galatasaray, the last Turkish team in the competition, is brimming with confidence ahead of its UEFA Cup semifinal against Werder Bremen tonight despite losing a German Cup penalty shootout to its opponent last week, coach Martin Jol said.Â
"They have yet to beat us. We played a 2-1 in the league and then a 1-1 in the Cup," Jol told reporters. "We will go to Bremen with lots of confidence." Hamburg midfielder Piotr Trochowski said his side wanted revenge for the Cup defeat.
"Bremen is not better than us. Look at where Bremen is in the Bundesliga. We have played a superb season and maybe we will get our revenge in the UEFA Cup."
Hamburg is fifth in the German League but only three points behind leader Wolfsburgh with five weeks to go, while Werder Bremen is left far behind the title race and has only UEFA Cup and German Cup to play for.
Injury concerns
Bremen coach Thomas Schaaf, whose team is 10th in the Bundesliga, for once does not have any serious injury concerns apart from defender Petri Pasanen while Jol has fitness worries over striker Mladen Petrict.
The northern German derby is not the only domestic battle.
Ukraine's top two sides meet in the country's capital as Dynamo Kiev and Shakhtar Donetsk extend their long rivalry to European competition.
Dynamo, who eliminated compatriots Metalist Kharkiv in the last 16, hold a 12-point lead over second-placed Shakhtar in the Ukrainian championship and has a good recent home record against its rival.
Midfielder Roman Yeryomenko and forward Artyom Kravets are battling to be fit for the opening leg.
"We hope Yeryomenko's condition is not too serious and he will be ready. Kravets, however, remains a question mark. We want him to examined by doctors abroad. Only then will we be able to give an assessment," Kiev coach Yuri Syomin told the club's Web site.
Shakhtar, in its first European semifinal, won the previous league match between the two clubs this season 1-0 in Donetsk in November.
Shakhtar coach Mircea Lucescu, who signed a new two-year contract after the quarterfinal victory over Olympique Marseille, already has one eye on the return leg in Donetsk on May 7 with the Romanian unhappy about the state of the pitch at the club's Olimpiyskyy stadium.
"The Olimpiyskyy pitch destroys our play. I feel ashamed to make my players perform on a pitch like this," he told the club's Web site. "They are unable to launch a decent attack and allow the opponents to keep all 11 men behind the ball. The basis of our play is technique and pace."
Lucescu is a familiar face for Turkish football, as he coached Galatasaray and BeÅŸiktaÅŸ, and led both to one Turkish league titles each. He was at the helm when BeÅŸiktaÅŸ won the title in its centennial in 2003, a year after clinching the league with Galatasaray.