Bate Borisov - Juventus 30th Sep 2008

There's what Nedved wants and what Ranieri needs to do in order to evacuate the pressure that he must feel after two disappointing draws, off his shoulders. He cannot be dictated what he must do. Having said that, I can definitely see him giving Nedved some minutes towards the end, if only to keep him docile.

Bate are hardly the caliber of opposition with which we will suffer a lot with or without Nedved's inclusion.

But indeed, it'll be interesting to see what his choices will be as the pressure mounts and we continue to look uninspiring offensively. Although pieces of magic by DP and Camo will likely mitigate that.

Nero said:

Bate are hardly the caliber of opposition with which we will suffer a lot with or without Nedved's inclusion.

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You bet they are going to run their arses off for this game. No one really takes them seriously, including Ranieri, but those boys will do their best to spoil our evening. It's the first official champions league game ever played in Minsk (I don't count qualifying round games), and making a good impression will be of great importance to them. Thus, I am not really expecting any kind of breathtaking performance from us (indeed, a hard thing to expect when your coach is Ranieri), and would be more than satisfied with three points.

Manninger; Grygera, Legrottaglie, Chiellini, De Ceglie; Camoranesi, Poulsen, Marchisio, Giovinco; Iaquinta, Amauri.

Bench: Chimenti, Mellberg, Molinaro, Marchionni, Sissoko, Del Piero, Nedved

It's funny how you post the players that have been called up and include Poulsen in your line-up although he is not among the called-up players

Héhé. Poulsen aside, Deano and I have predicted the same team.

Alejnikov: "Bate are as good as an Italian serie B team. Juventus have 90% chances to win it". BTW interesting story the one of Alejnikov in Italy.

ToniSamp said:

Alejnikov: "Bate are as good as an Italian serie B team. Juventus have 90% chances to win it". BTW interesting story the one of Alejnikov in Italy.

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I wonder how many B teams can qualify to the Champions League and concede only two goals at Santiago Bernabeu?

Sissoko in then, I am sure I saw Poulsen dreaming I suppose.

Nyuka said:

I wonder how many B teams can qualify to the Champions League and concede only two goals at Santiago Bernabeu?

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I trust Sergej. :embarass:

ToniSamp said:

Alejnikov: "Bate are as good as an Italian serie B team. Juventus have 90% chances to win it". BTW interesting story the one of Alejnikov in Italy.

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I'm all ears.

Steph! said:

I'm all ears.

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Too long to tell. He has been less than spectacular as a player, above all slow, but its life has been pretty interesting, being a kind of pioneer of the transfers from USSR to Italy (with Zavarov) first of all and then cause he wandered from Italy to Japan to Sweden etc. always keeping a strong tie both with Belarus (of course) and Italy. Infact he ended his carreer at Corigliano in serie D and is now the coach of an Italian club, this one:
http://www.nkkras.it/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=32
I think that this club has an interesting story as well

+1 on Steph/Deano lineup.

Toni, either he was quite talented, or Belarus gets a Hleb level player once every 100 years only (read: poor standards), because Alejnikov apparently has been chosen as the best player in their history it seems.

And yeah funnily enough have played against the team he played for in Sweden, very low level. Bit bizzare a former Juve player, who was part in winning honours, played later in this kinda amateur level swede footie.

Osman said:

Toni, either he was quite talented, or Belarus gets a Hleb level player once every 100 years only (read: poor standards), because Alejnikov apparently has been chosen as the best player in their history it seems.

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He was not a bad player, even if someone mentions him among the so called "bidoni" in the history of Juventus. He was just too slow for Italian football.

He was rather ace for the very good Russian NT at the time. Its one thing that he was slow which was obviously an impediment in serieA. More than that, I think, we got a bit of what was (and by some retards still is) commonly referred to as 'lazy Russian' syndrom in the NHL, where Russian players crossing over before the end of the communist system rather frequently took the good money and seemed to kick back from there until they were in a contract year.

Zavarov, a superior player who by all means was well good enough, was an absolute disaster for Juve as soon as he got the keys to the Ferrari.

Amauri out, Flu ..

Also should Del Piero score 2 today, it will be 50 European goals in total.

Glen said:

He was rather ace for the very good Russian NT at the time. Its one thing that he was slow which was obviously an impediment in serieA. More than that, I think, we got a bit of what was (and by some retards still is) commonly referred to as 'lazy Russian' syndrom in the NHL, where Russian players crossing over before the end of the communist system rather frequently took the good money and seemed to kick back from there until they were in a contract year.

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Aleinikov never player for Russia. He played for the Soviet Union, and had a brief career with CIS and Belarus NT.

Uefa.com have it that we'll play Nedved, Camo and Giovinco in midfield. Sweet. Sissoko will be the 4th midfielder, I wonder if it'll be Nedved or Camo with him in the center.

Del Piero-Iaquinta on top.

To bad I'll miss this game. For the ones that will be watching, make sure to tell us about how the midfield looked.