Couceiro’s Champions League dream suffers setback

Round-up of matches involving Portuguese

As club’s across the continent battle it out for the remaining places in the group phase of this season’s Uefa Champions League, PortuGOAL rounds up the matches with Portuguese participants from this week’s first legs of the competition’s third and final qualifying round.

Fiorentina (Ita) 2-0 SK Slavia Prague (Cze)
Italians Fiorentina are close to a return to the Champions League after a 2-0 home win over Slavia Prague at the Artemio Franchi, although there was no sign of Portuguese defender Manuel da Costa in La Viola’s squad. Goals from strikers Adrian Mutu (3) and Alberto Gilardino (60) gave the Serie A side the advantage going into next week’s second leg, as Cesare Prandelli’s men look to secure their first appearance in Europe’s premier club competition since the turn of the century.

Anorthosis Famagusta (Cyp) 3-0 Olympiakos (Gre)
One of the shock results of the evening saw Anorthosis Famagusta of Cyprus thrash Greek giants Olympiakos, opening up the possibility of becoming the first ever Cypriot representative to make the group stages. Both of Anorthosis’ Portuguese players started the match on the bench, with Paulo Costa coming on two minutes into the second half and Tiquinho remaining an unused substitute.

Aalborg (Den) 2-0 FBK Kaunas (Lit)
Jose Couceiro and FBK Kaunas’ dream of a historic group phase appearance was dealt a severe blow as the Lithuanian champions crashed to a 2-0 defeat in Denmark. Despite having upset Scottish club Rangers in the previous round, Kaunas remained underdogs going into the match in Aalborg and goals inside the last twenty minutes from Caca and Jeppe Curth means Couceiro’s men have a mountain to climb next week.

Galatasaray (Tur) 2-2 Steaua Bucharest (Rom)
Fernando Meira’s Galatasaray came from two goals down at home to salvage a draw from their first leg with last season’s Romanian runners-up Steaua Bucharest. Meira was handed a berth in central defence by Gala, but the hosts were stunned by two goals inside the opening 12 minutes from Moreno and Nicolita which gave Steaua a dream start. However, Shabani Nonda’s brace saw the Turkish club draw back on even terms heading into the second leg. Tiago Gomes was introduced on 81 minutes by Steaua boss Marius Lacatus.

Juventus (Ita) 4-0 FC Artmedia Petrzalka (Slv)
With Portuguese international Tiago expected to leave the club in the near future, possibly to Newcastle United, Juventus boss Claudio Ranieri left the midfielder out of the match squad as goals from Camoranesi, Del Piero, Chiellini and Legrottaglie helped the Bianconeri to a routine victory over the Slovakian champions.

FC Schalke (Ger) 1-0 Atletico Madrid (Spa)
Atletico Madrid’s long-awaited return to the Champions League may not last beyond the qualifiers after Los Rojiblancos lost and failed to score an away goal in Gelsenkirchen. Simao Sabrosa started for Atletico, but was replaced in the second half with his side still trailing to Christian Pander’s 12th minute free-kick.

Partizan Belgrade (Ser) 2-2 Fenerbahce (Tur)
A frustrating evening for last season’s Serbian title winners Partizan Belgrade saw them throw away a two-goal lead against Turkish champions Fenerbahce. Partizan were without influential Portuguese forward Almani Moreira, but raced into an early two-goal lead thanks to Veljko Paunovic and Milos Bogunovic. However, a penalty on the stroke of half time from Alex and Daniel Guiza’s 50th minute strike means Fener will be installed as huge favourites to progress to the group phase.