Udinese Calcio v FC Barcelona PRESS KIT Friuli, Udine Wednesday, 7 December 2005 - 20:45 CET Group C - Matchday 6 With FC Barcelona safely confirmed as Group C winners, attention focuses on whether Udinese Calcio can qualify for the knockout stages in their first UEFA Champions League season. Udinese are also looking for revenge, having suffered a 4-1 defeat at the Camp Nou on Matchday 2, being victims of a masterclass from Ronaldinho, the newly-crowned European Footballer of the Year, who scored a hat-trick. Point enough for Udinese •A point would take Udinese through as runners-up, while they could only afford a defeat if Werder Bremen do not win at home to Panathinaikos FC. Should Udinese lose and Panathinaikos win, the Serie A team would go through on head-to-head record, the same rule by which they would lose out to Bremen should both the German team and Barcelona gain victory, in which case Udinese would enter the UEFA Cup Round of 32. First meeting •The 27 September encounter between the clubs was their first meeting in UEFA club competition, and it was also Udinese's first official encounter with a Spanish club. •Ronaldinho got Barça going with a 13th-minute free-kick before Felipe briefly interrupted the Brazilian magician's one-man show with a 24th-minute leveller. Once the home talisman had restored the lead, however, there was no way back for the Italian side and Ronaldinho completed the scoring from the spot, by which time Deco had also converted a stunning set-piece and Vidigal had seen red for Udinese. Udinese's European record •This is Udinese's seventh European campaign since making their bow in UEFA club competitions in 1997. The club already have a European honour to their name as one of the three winners of the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 2000. Long history against Italian sides •Barcelona have been playing Italian sides since November 1959, and the Spanish giants have gained some of their major successes against Italian opposition. Barcelona won the 1989 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final with a 2-0 win against UC Sampdoria, and won the last European Cup final before the creation of the UEFA Champions League three years later at Wembley against the same opposition 1-0 with an extra-time goal from the current SL Benfica coach Ronald Koeman. Final defeats •However, in their last meeting with an Italian club in a UEFA competition final, Barcelona were beaten 4-0 by AC Milan in the 1993/94 Champions League, against the club that had also defeated them over two legs in the 1989 UEFA Super Cup. Mixed record in Italy •In 12 previous visits to Italy for two-legged ties in UEFA competition and UEFA uefa.com 1/38 Udinese Calcio v FC Barcelona PRESS KIT Champions League group games, Barcelona have won three times. Five games have finished in draws and the Catalan club have lost on four occasions. •On the last occasion that Barcelona journeyed to Italy, last season, they were defeated 1-0 by AC Milan in UEFA Champions League Group F. The last win in Italy was seven visits ago at ACF Fiorentina with a 2-0 success in the semi-finals of the 1996/97 Cup Winners' Cup. Barcelona won 3-1 on aggregate, and went on to defeat Paris Saint- Germain FC 1-0 in the final. Team facts: Udinese •Udinese's first participation in UEFA club competition came during the 1997/98 season in the UEFA Cup where they advanced to the second round. •Since then Udinese have qualified for the UEFA Cup on five occasions, their best performance coming in the 1999/00 season when they reached the fourth round before exiting on away goals to SK Slavia Praha. Udinese had earlier accounted for Aalborg BK, Legia Warszawa and Bayer 04 Leverkusen. •Udinese were fourth-placed finishers in last season's Serie A, 24 points behind winners Juventus. Milan rivals AC Milan and FC Internazionale Milano finished second and third - 17 and ten points ahead of Udinese respectively. •Udinese reached the third qualifying round of the competition against Sporting Clube de Portugal, last season’s defeated UEFA Cup finalists. Udinese won both legs of their match to go through 4-2 on aggregate. Vincenzo Iaquinta scored the only goal of the game at the Estádio José Alvalade with a 27th-minute penalty before Udinese confirmed their superiority with a 3-2 win at the Friuli stadium. Iaquinta opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 23 minutes before Cesare Natali doubled their lead 12 minutes later. Although Sporting reduced the deficit before the interval, Udinese forged further ahead one minute into second half added time through Paulo Barreto. Mauricio Pinilla scored within 60 seconds but it was too late for the Portuguese side to salvage the tie. •A hat-trick by Vincenzo Iaquinta gave Udinese a perfect start to their debut UEFA Champions League campaign with a convincing win against Panathinaikos FC at the Friuli stadium. The Italian international scored once in the first half and twice in the second to give the Italians a memorable start to the competition. •But Udinese were on the receiving end of a Ronaldinho hat-trick on Matchday 2 as the Brazilian paved the way for FC Barcelona to mark their 150th European Champion Clubs' Cup game with a 4-1 win at the Camp Nou. Ronaldinho got Barça going with a 13th-minute free-kick before Felipe briefly interrupted the Brazilian magician's one-man show with a 24th-minute leveller. Once the home talisman had restored the lead eight minutes later, however, there was no way back for the Italian side and Ronaldinho completed the scoring from the spot in the last minute, by which time Deco had also converted a stunning set-piece and Vidigal had seen red for Udinese. •Substitute Antonio Di Natale struck four minutes from time to earn Udinese a deserved uefa.com 2/38 Udinese Calcio v FC Barcelona PRESS KIT draw against Werder Bremen in a wonderfully open UEFA Champions League Matchday 3 encounter at the Friuli stadium. Di Natale showed impressive composure to finish emphatically after fellow substitute Stefano Mauri's excellent through-ball. Earlier, Udinese defender Felipe had headed into his own net after 64 minutes as the visitors seemed poised for their first win. •The two sides then served-up a seven-goal thriller on Matchday 4, at that point providing the most goals in a single game in the 2005/06 competition. Miroslav Klose (15) and Frank Baumann (24)rewarded Bremen for an impressive first-half display before Johan Micoud (51) added a third shortly after the break. However, two strikes from substitute Antonio Di Natale (54, 57) and a Christian Schulz own goal (60) wiped out that deficit in six frantic second-half minutes, only for Micoud (67) to strike again. •Vincent Candela scored a blistering long-range strike with just seven minutes remaining as Udinese Calcio completed a late fightback to win at Panathinaikos on Matchday 5. Outplayed for much of the game, the visitors went into the final ten minutes trailing to Cypriot midfielder Constantinos Charalambides's goal on the cusp of half-time. But the scourge of Panathinaikos this season, Vincenzo Iaquinta, equalised on 81 minutes, and two minutes later Udinese were ahead from the most unlikely source. Candela cut in from the wing and rifled a terrific effort from 25 metres into the top-right corner – his first goal in his 28th appearance in the competition. •In total, Udinese have played 35 matches in UEFA club competition, winning 20, drawing four and losing eleven. In that time, the Italian side have scored 49 goals while conceding 37 in the process. •Until this season, Udinese had competed exclusively in the UEFA Cup after qualifying for European action. Their record in that competition reads: played 22, won 12, drawn two and lost eight with 23 goals scored and 19 conceded. Team facts: Barcelona •Bar ça are competing in their eighth UEFA Champions League campaign in the past nine seasons. In the 2003/04 season the Catalan club were involved in the UEFA Cup until elimination in the fourth round. •Since their 4-0 defeat by AC Milan in the 1993/94 European Champion Clubs' Cup final, Barça have advanced to the semi-finals of the competition twice, namely during the 1999/00 and 2001/02 seasons, where they lost on both occasions to Spanish opponents. The former came against Valencia CF who defeated Barça 5-3 on aggregate, while the latter was against Real Madrid CF who won 2-0 in Barcelona before drawing 1-1 at home to advance to the final. •In total, Barça have appeared in four European Champion Clubs' Cup finals, winning the 1991/92 competition against UC Sampdoria thanks to a 112th-minute Ronald Koeman free-kick. Previously, Barça lost on penalties to CSA Steaua Bucuresti in the 1985/86 season and 3-2 to SL Benfica in the 1960/61 season. uefa.com 3/38 Udinese Calcio v FC Barcelona PRESS KIT •Bar ça won the Spanish Primera División by four points from Real Madrid CF. Villarreal CF and Real Betis Balompié followed in third and fourth place, 19 and 22 points behind the champions respectively. •Entering the competition at the start of the group stage, the Catalan team opened their account with two wins from two outings. Barça tamed Bremen in Germany on the opening matchday with goals from Deco (13) and Ronaldinho (76pen). Then Udinese, fresh from a 3-0 win against Panathinaikos, felt the wrath of Ronaldinho who bagged a hat-trick (13, 32, 90pen) with Deco (41) also on the scoresheet in a sizzling 4-1 victory at the Camp Nou.