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Lions and Canaries not leaving anything to chance
The Fenerbahçe Yellow Canaries during a training session for today’s away game against Honved. (R)
The Lions are at home, hosting Israeli side Maccabi Netanya, the team they walloped 4-1 in the first leg at Tel Aviv's Bloomfield Stadium last Thursday. That four different players -- Turkey defender Hakan Balta, Australia winger Harry Kewell, Turkey defensive midfielder Sabri Sarıoğlu and Czech Republic striker Milan Baros -- were on the Galatasaray score sheet in this match means every player on Frank Rijkaard's squad is capable of finding the back of the net.
The Yellow Canaries face Budapest Honved, the hapless Hungarian side they hammered 5-1 in İstanbul last week, away at the Bozsik Stadium in Budapest. Lanky Spanish striker Daniel Gonzalez Güiza hit a hat trick for the Canaries, while Brazilians Roberto Carlos and Alex de Souza added one apiece in İstanbul last Thursday to give Christoph Daum's men an almost insurmountable advantage. Furthermore, the Canaries go into this evening's qualifier in high spirits and in great form having bashed Turkish champion Beşiktaş 2-0 in the TFF Super Cup in İstanbul on Sunday.
This evening's match in Budapest will be played in an empty stadium because UEFA, European soccer's governing body, ordered Honved on Aug. 26, 2008 to play its next home match in a European competition an empty stadium due to the racist behavior of Honved's fans. UEFA's disciplinary committee said an additional one-match ban will be deferred for a probationary period of five years.
Honved supporters displayed a banner with a racist slogan at the Bozsik Stadium in Budapest during the July 26, 2008 Intertoto Cup match against Sturm Graz, where the Austrian side won the game 2-1 to advance to the UEFA Cup. The European governing body ruled that Honved had shown "insufficient organization" of its supporters. The ban imposed last year takes effect today.
Lions don't gloat
The general consensus among soccer circles is that Netanya is not expected to pose much of a challenge against the Lions this evening at İstanbul's Ali Sami Yen Stadium where, according to diehard fans, there is no escape. But Dutch coach Rijkaard is not taking anything for granted.
The reason is that the Dutchman has been around long enough to know that soccer is a sport with endless possibilities where anything can happen. “We are training as hard as ever for the match on Thursday [today],” Rijkaard said this week. “We are taking this match very seriously because we do not have the luxury of leaving anything to chance.”
The Fener Canaries are also expected to come out unscathed in Budapest this evening. Yet Daum, like Rijkaard, refused to count his chickens before they hatched. “We had a good advantage in the first leg at home, but there is still everything to play for in the second leg away,” he said this week.
So Daum is going to field a very strong squad against the Hungarians today. Roberto Carlos, injured in last Thursday's match, will be conspicuously absent today. But the others in the Brazilian “battalion” at Fener, which includes captain de Souza, newly signed defender André Clarindo dos Santos and midfielder Cristian Oliveira Baroni from Corinthians as well as Alves da Silva Bilica from Sivasspor, will all be on duty this evening.
Live on D-Smart
21:00 Galatasaray-Maccabi Netanya
Live on atv
21:00 Honved-Fenerbahçe
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