Turkish football clubs to take stage in CL qualifiers

Turkish Super League title defenders Galatasaray will face Romania's Steaua Bucharest in Istanbul, while Fenerbahce will play an away game against Serbia's Partizan in Belgrad on Wednesday's games.

Laurent Duhamel from French Football Federation will referee the game which will begin at 9:15 p.m. (1815 GMT) at Ali Sami Yen Stadium in Istanbul.

Galatasaray's starting line-up would be; Aykut - Baris, Emre Asik or Meira, Servet, Hakan - Hasan, Ayhan, Mehmet Topal, Arda, Lincoln - Nonda.

FENERBAHCE TO FACE PARTIZAN

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.

Scotland's Craig Thomson will be the referee of the game between Turkish and Serbian sides which will start at 1900 GMT.

Fenerbahce eliminated Hungary's MTK Budapest in the second qualifying round.

Partizan Belgrade 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.

Partizan had asked Ljubomir Fejsa and Zoran Tosic to return home for Fenerbahce game but Djukic said the pair was staying in China.

Fewer Turkish supporters are expected to be in Belgrad for the Partizan game than the number UEFA procedurally allocated for the spectators of visitor teams. Serbian authorities created some difficulties for Turks wanting to obtain an entry visa, as Turkey recognizes the newly independent Kosovo, which was a former Serbian province.

Fenerbahce's starting line-up would be; Volkan - Gokhan, Lugano, Edu, Roberto Carlos - Kazim, Selcuk, Alex, Ugur - Semih, Guiza.

Photo: AA