Club Brugge KV V AS Roma PRESS KIT
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Club Brugge KV v AS Roma PRESS KIT Jan Breydel, Bruges Wednesday, 15 February 2006 - 20:45 local time Round of 32 - Matchday 8 One of eight teams entering the UEFA Cup at the Round of 32 stage, Club Brugge KV have been handed perhaps the most difficult draw, against Italian side AS Roma. The Bruges outfit will have fond memories of their last encounter with the Giallorossi in the same competition more than 30 years ago when they triumphed on aggregate following two 1-0 wins. However Roma, who finished second in Group E, have not lost to Belgian opposition since. •Club Brugge were always up against it after being drawn alongside FC Bayern München and Juventus in UEFA Champions League Group A. They lost to each team by a single goal in their first two fixtures before back-to-back victories against SK Rapid Wien cemented third place and a UEFA Cup consolation. A narrow defeat by Juve followed but Jan Ceulemans' side ended the campaign on a high, earning a battling 1-1 draw against Bayern. •Roma needed a 3-1 Matchday 5 victory against FC Basel 1893 to book their place in the UEFA Cup knockout stages after an inconsistent Group E campaign. It started off well, Leandro Cufré's late strike earning a 2-1 victory against Trømso IL in Norway, but their progress was slowed by a 1-1 draw against RC Strasbourg. A 3-1 defeat at FK Crvena Zvezda left them on the brink of elimination before their final-day win against Basel. •Club Brugge and Roma have met once before in UEFA club competition when they were paired in the third round of the 1975/76 UEFA Cup – and it was the Belgian team that came out on top. Julien Cools scored the only goal of the first leg at the Jan Breydel stadium, before Raoul Lambert sealed their passage to the quarter-finals with the only goal of the game in Italy. Club Brugge then saw off AC Milan, eventually going on to reach the final where they were narrowly defeated by Liverpool FC. •Two years later the Belgians reached another final, in the European Champion Clubs' Cup, after overcoming a one-goal first-leg deficit against Juventus. Alfons Bastijns's early goal forced extra time, paving the way for René Vandereycken to steal victory with four minutes of the additional half-hour remaining. Liverpool again awaited in the showpiece and, like two years earlier, Club Brugge were denied. •Now coach at the Jan Breydel stadium, Ceulemans was part of the Club Brugge team that lost 1-0 on aggregate to AC Milan in the second round of the 1990/91 European Champion Clubs' Cup. That proved the start of a barren run against Serie A teams that has seen the Belgian outfit win just once in six games, losing four. •By contrast, Roma have not lost to Belgian opposition in eight games since 1975, including victories home and away against RSC Anderlecht in the second round of the 1990/91 UEFA Cup. The Giallorossi went on to reach the final where they were they uefa.com 1/17 Club Brugge KV v AS Roma PRESS KIT lost against FC Internazionale Milano. Club facts: Club Brugge •Club Brugge were involved in the UEFA Champions League group stage for the third time in four years, but the Belgian champions have yet to make it beyond the group stage having finished in third place each of those seasons – an outcome that resulted in their switch to the UEFA Cup knockout stages. •Their proudest European moment came in their qualification for the 1977/78 European Champion Clubs' Cup final where a solitary goal from Kenny Dalglish provided Liverpool FC with victory at London's Wembley stadium. 2005/06 season •UEFA Champions League qualifying: Club Brugge won the Belgian first division by three points from RSC Anderlecht, thus giving them a place in the third qualifying round where they required a penalty shoot-out to eventually overcome Norwegian side Vålerenga IF. Trailing 1-0 from the opening leg in Oslo, the Belgian champions needed a Boško Balaban goal eleven minutes from time to force the tie into extra time. No further goals were scored until the penalty shoot-out, which Club Brugge won 4-3 with Sven Vermant, Michael Klukowski, Jonathan Blondel and Balaban all on target. •UEFA Champions League group stage: Club Brugge were winless after the opening two matchdays having lost 2-1 at home against Juventus and then 1-0 away against FC Bayern München. •But the Belgian side then recorded back-to-back wins against SK Rapid Wien. The only goal of the game on Matchday 3 at Vienna's Ernst Happel stadium came 15 minutes from time through Croatian striker Balaban. In Bruges, goals from Javier Portillo (9), Balaban (25) and veteran Gerd Verheyen (63) secured the win after Marek Kincl's diving header had given Rapid the lead after only 33 seconds. The Austrians ensured a nervous finale after Steffen Hoffmann's 81st-minute header, but the Belgian side held on. •Their aspirations to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition were dashed in Turin on Matchday 5 as Alessandro Del Piero scored the only goal ten minutes from time as Juventus advanced to the last 16. Despite defeat, Brugge claimed a third-placed finish before holding Bayern to a draw at the Jan Breydelstadion on Matchday 6. Claudio Pizarro opened the scoring for the away team with a powerful back-header after 21 minutes, but Portillo's superb equaliser in the 33rd minute earned a point for Club Brugge. Key facts •Club Brugge have scored in eleven of their last 12 matches at home in UEFA club competition stretching back to the last matchday of the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League group stage when a 2-1 defeat of AFC Ajax provided them with a place in the UEFA Cup third round. Having overcome Hungarian side Debreceni VSC at that stage of the competition, the Belgian side exited in the fourth round as a 3-1 away defeat to uefa.com 2/17 Club Brugge KV v AS Roma PRESS KIT FC Girondins de Bordeaux was followed by a 1-0 home reverse. In those 12 matches, Club Brugge have won seven, drawn three and lost two, the only other defeat coming on the opening matchday of this season's UEFA Champions League, a 2-1 loss to Juventus. •Last season, Club Brugge competed in the UEFA Cup group stage after failing to overcome FC Shakhtar Donetsk in the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round. Having overcome French side LB Châteauroux in the first round, the Belgian side failed to secure a top three finish in the group stage and a place in the knockout stages following one victory (1-0 at home to FC Utrecht), two draws (1-1 away to FK Austria Wien and 1-1 at home to Real Zaragoza) and a defeat (3-2 away to FC Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk) from their four engagements. •In the last decade, Club Brugge have hosted 25 UEFA Cup matches winning 18, drawing three and losing four with 62 goals scored and 22 conceded. From those 25 games, the Belgians have failed to score in two matches, namely defeats to FC Barcelona (0-2) and Bordeaux (0-1) on 23 November 2000 and 25 March 2004 respectively. •In total, Club Brugge have played 197 matches in UEFA club competitions. Their record to date in the UEFA Cup reads: played 92, won 45, drawn 15 and lost 32 with 175 goals scored and 123 conceded. Club facts: Roma •Roma are making their eighth consecutive appearance in UEFA competitions and their tenth in eleven seasons. This is their 22nd season in UEFA club competitions following their introduction in the 1969/70 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup at the first round stage. •Roma endured a torrid time in last season's UEFA Champions League having qualified automatically for the competition following their second-placed finish to AC Milan in Serie A. Their opening match against FC Dynamo Kyiv ended early as match official Anders Frisk was hit with an object thrown from a spectator in the crowd at the Stadio Olimpico and the match was subsequently abandoned, UEFA awarding a 3-0 win to the Ukrainian visitors. •The Italian club were forced to play subsequent matches against Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Real Madrid CF behind closed doors, matches that ended in a 1-1 draw and a 3-0 loss respectively for the home side. Away from home, Roma lost all three matches by two-goal margins and exited the competition at the end of the six-match group phase having finished bottom of the table. •Roma have appeared in two finals in UEFA competition – the 1983/84 European Champion Clubs' Cup and the 1990/91 UEFA Cup. In the former, the Italian side were denied victory in a penalty shootout in their own Stadio Olimpico by Liverpool FC after the two sides drew 1-1 after 120 minutes. Phil Neal opened the scoring for Liverpool, but Roma equalised shortly before the interval through Roberto Pruzzo, only for the uefa.com 3/17 Club Brugge KV v AS Roma PRESS KIT English side to prevail on penalties. •Seven years later, Roma met FC Internazionale Milano in the UEFA Cup final, but again ended on the losing side. Inter won the first leg 2-0 in Milan with goals from Lothar Matthäus and Nicola Berti, a deficit that Roma were unable to overcome despite winning the return leg a fortnight later thanks to Ruggiero Rizzitelli's 81st-minute goal.