Juventus - FC Zenit St. Petersburg MATCH PRESS KIT Stadio Olimpico, Turin Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45CET Group H - Matchday 1 Contents 1 - Match background 7 - UEFA information 2 - Match facts 8 - Match-by-match lineups 3 - Squad list 9 - Competition facts 4 - Head coach 10 - Team facts 5 - Match officials 11 - Legend 6 - Domestic information This press kit includes information relating to this UEFA Champions League match. For more detailed factual information, and in-depth competition statistics, please refer to the matchweek press kit, which can be downloaded at: http://www.uefa.com/uefa/mediaservices/presskits/index.html Match background After an absence of two years, 1996 winners Juventus are back in the UEFA Champions League hoping to make up for lost time. Their first contest brings them up against FC Zenit St. Petersburg, who, less than three weeks after adding the UEFA Super Cup to last season's UEFA Cup triumph, will be hoping to make a similar impact in Europe's top club competition. • Before their enforced relegation to Serie B as a consequence of the sporting fraud scandal which hit Italian football two years ago, Juventus achieved successive quarter-final appearances in the UEFA Champions League between 2004/05 and 2005/06. They won their group in both seasons and also in 2003/04. In all three campaigns, they managed to get a lot of the hard work done early, winning their first three fixtures in 2003/04, the first five the following year and the first two the year after that. So the Russian debutants will be expecting a fierce onslaught in this Group H opener. • Juventus have also built up an impressive record at the Stadio delle Alpi in recent years, winning all three home group games in both 2004/05 and 2005/06. In total, they played ten home games in those seasons, winning eight, drawing two and conceding just two goals. Their last home defeat in the competition came against RC Deportivo La Coruña in the first knockout round on 9 March 2004, the Spanish club triumphing 1-0 on the night and 2-0 overall. • Their last home defeat in the initial group stage (they were beaten in Turin in the second group stage in February 2003) came on 24 October 2000 when SV Hamburger won 3-1. Since then, they have played 15 home games in the first group stage and have won them all, scoring 38 goals and only conceding seven. • After their third-place finish in Serie A, Claudio Ranieri's side had to qualify for the group stage and achieved that with a 5-1 aggregate victory over FC Artmedia Petržalka. It was set up by a 4-0 win in Turin with Mauro Camoranesi and Alessandro Del Piero giving Juve a comfortable advantage by the half-hour mark. Giorgio Chiellini made it 3-0 by half-time with Nicola Legrottaglie completing the scoring. The game in Bratislava ended 1-1 with Amauri grabbing an equaliser after Branislav Fodrek had put the Slovakian titleholders ahead. Last updated 16.09.2008 12:15:10CET www.uefa.com Match background 1 Juventus - FC Zenit St. Petersburg Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45 CET MATCH PRESS KIT Stadio Olimpico, Turin • Juventus, who apart from their UEFA Champions League triumph 12 years ago were runners-up on three occasions between 1996/97 and 2002/03, have met Russian opponents on two previous occasions in European competition. In the first round of the 1993/94 UEFA Cup they faced FC Lokomotiv Moskva and had things mostly their own way, winning 3-0 at home and 1-0 away. Their 1999 UEFA Intertoto Cup semi-final with FC Rostov proved even more comfortable for the Italian side. They won 4-0 away and enjoyed the same winning advantage in Turin, this time by 5-1. • Zenit's only previous contest with a team from Italy came in the 1999/00 UEFA Cup first round when they lost 3-0 to Bologna FC in the home leg. Some respectability was restored as the St. Petersburg outfit drew 2-2 in Italy. • Zenit owe their first ever participation in the UEFA Champions League to their success in lifting the Premier-Liga title – for only the second time – with a two-point advantage over FC Spartak Moskva. It proved a fantastic season for coach Dick Advocaat and his team, who added the UEFA Cup to their trophy cabinet with a 2-0 victory over Rangers FC at the City of Manchester Stadium. Igor Denisov and Konstantin Zyryanov scored the all-important goals as Advocaat celebrated a first ever European crown. • That gave Zenit a date in the UEFA Super Cup at the Stade Louis II on 29 August, where a goal in each half from Pavel Pogrebnyak and debutant Danny secured them victory over Manchester United FC and another trophy. • The other game in Group H sees Real Madrid CF take on FC BATE Borisov. Match facts Juventus UEFA milestones • None UEFA Champions League statistics • Nine Juventus players appeared in both qualifying games: Gianluigi Buffon, Zdeněk Grygera, Cristian Molinaro, Nicola Legrottaglie, Mauro Camoranesi, Christian Poulsen, Mohamed Sissoko, Amauri and Vincenzo Iaquinta. Disciplinary information • Juventus have no players suspended or within a booking of a ban. Latest domestic information • Sunday 14 September: Juventus 1-0 Udinese Calcio (Amauri 67) A second-half goal by Amauri earned Juventus their first Serie A victory of the season. The home side dominated for long spells and fashioned several chances, with Amauri and Poulsen both striking the woodwork. The goal Juve's dominance merited finally arrived 23 minutes from time when Sissoko's run unnerved the visitors' defence, allowing Amauri to place a right-footed shot low into the bottom corner. • Coach Claudio Ranieri said: "We played very well and created several opportunities against what was a strong side. We had three or four clear chances in either half and I'm very satisfied with our performance. I know Zenit well, they are a very strong side and are flying high after winning their domestic league, the UEFA Cup and the [UEFA] Super Cup. We will surely have another difficult game on Wednesday." • Giorgio Chiellini returned from a left knee injury ahead of schedule to take his place in the starting XI, having initially been earmarked for a return to action in late September by the earliest when he picked up the knock last month. • Paolo De Ceglie was preferred to Molinaro at left-back while former Udinese striker Iaquinta started alongside Amauri in attack. Alessandro Del Piero and David Trezeguet were on the substitutes' bench, both coming on with three minutes remaining. • Amauri's goal was his first in the league for Juventus having scored against FC Artmedia Petržalka in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round second leg on 26 August. • Juventus have registered in their last seven home games. The last time they failed to do so was on 28 February in the derby against Torino FC (0-0). Last updated 16.09.2008 12:15:10CET www.uefa.com Match facts 2 Juventus - FC Zenit St. Petersburg Wednesday 17 September 2008 - 20.45 CET MATCH PRESS KIT Stadio Olimpico, Turin • Juve were denied three points in their Serie A opener against ACF Fiorentina on 31 August, despite going into the closing stages with a one-man advantage and leading through Pavel Nedvěd's 38th-minute strike. The home side's hopes looked to have vanished with Felipe Melo's 83rd-minute dismissal, but Alberto Gilardino pounced a minute from time to make it 1-1. • The goal maintained Nedvěd's record of scoring in every season since his arrival in Italy in 1996. • Olof Mellberg and Poulsen made their Serie A debuts against the Viola. Injury news • Giorgio Chiellini – out 16 August to 14 September (knee) • Jorge Andrade – out since 23 September 2007 (knee) • David Trezeguet – out 28 August to 14 September (knee) • Cristiano Zanetti – out since 11 August (thigh) • Marco Marchionni – out 11 August to 14 September (thigh) • Jonathan Zebina – out since 20 August (achilles) • Mohamed Sissoko – out 7 July to 14 September (thigh) • On 12 July Jorge Andrade suffered a relapse of the knee injury which caused him to miss all but the first four matches of last season, and underwent surgery a few days later. Summer transfers •In Olof Mellberg (Aston Villa FC) Amauri (US Città di Palermo) Albin Ekdal (IF Brommapojkarna) Dario Knežević (AS Livorno Calcio) Christian Poulsen (Sevilla FC) Alex Manninger (Udinese Calcio) Antonio Chimenti (Udinese Calcio) •Out Davide Lanzafame (US Città di Palermo) Antonio Nocerino (US Città di Palermo) Alessandro Birindelli (Pisa Calcio) Raffaele Palladino (Genoa CFC) Sergio Almiron (ACF Fiorentina) • The signing of Amauri represented Juventus' biggest summer outlay at a cost of €22.8m. International news • Buffon and Camoranesi were in the Italy side that defeated Cyprus (2-1) and Georgia (2-0) in their opening FIFA World Cup qualifying Group 8 qualifiers on 6 and 10 September. Unused substitutes in the first outing, Del Piero and Iaquinta were both introduced in the second half against Georgia in Udine. • Manninger played for Austria in the 3-1 win against France and 2-0 defeat by Lithuania in Group 7, while Mellberg was ever-present as Sweden were held to a goalless draw in Albania before beating Hungary 2-1. Denmark had failed to register against the Hungarians four days earlier, but made amends in their second Group 1 outing, Poulsen scoring his team's second equaliser in a thrilling 3-2 win against Portugal. • Dario Knežević came on as a second-half substitute as ten-man Croatia lost 4-1 at home to England on 10 September, the same day that Grygera helped the Czech Republic to a goalless draw in Northern Ireland.