UEFA Champions League – Match Preview: Cluj versus Basel
Cluj kick off their Champions League campaign on Wednesday night as they entertain Basel in the opening game of the UEFA Champions League’s group E. Group stages can be a tricky thing, especially for inexperienced European sides. Basel and Cluj might not be household names like Manchester United or Real Madrid.
But their qualification for the Champions League’s group stages gives them a certain level of respect and credibility that they need to build on.
Wednesday night’s encounter between Cluj and Basel might be a make or break match for both the sides. This is because of the other teams in their group, group E is made up of Bayern Munich, Roma, Cluj and Basel. Realistically, neither Cluj nor Basel can be expected to win the group or obtain a favourable result against the German Champions Bayern Munich and the former European Champions Roma.
This gives tonight’s match between Cluj and Basel the utmost importance as the winner of this encounter may as well do himself a favour as far as long term prospects of qualification to the next round of the tournament are concerned.
Cluj, who hail from Romania have a tendency to surprise. They exhibited this habit when they defeated Roma at the Stadio Olimpico, two seasons ago in the UEFA Champions League, their previous win will give them confidence as they go into a new European season.
The scorer of two goals against Roma, Culio is still with Cluj but their form has not been as good as it should be, of late. Cluj won the 2009-2010 Romanian football league but they have already lost six points from their games in the 2010-2011 Romanian league. Las weekend, they lost to their rivals Rapid Bucharest which resulted in their manager’s dismissal and therefore Cluj will welcome Basel with their new manager, Sorin Cartu.
Cartu is surely not expected to work a miracle at Cluj but one thing he is expected to do is to fix their defensive frailties which have cost them a lot of points in the presently on-going club football season.
However, an ideal start for Sorin would be a victory against Basel and given that the match is at Cluj’s home ground, they will be favourites to get that result. Basel on the other hands, are not Champions League regulars themselves, they have only made it to the group stages of the UEFA Champions League on two other occasions in their history.
Cluj will be foolish to underestimate Basel as their opponents also have a tendency to surprise. In the 2008-2009 season, Basel achieved an unlikely draw against Barcelona at the Nou Camp. Basel have not had a good start to their season as well as defeats against Bellinzona and Luzern in their domestic league having tarnished their record.
Nonetheless, they are unbeaten as far as UEFA Champions League’s qualification stages are concerned; they won all four of their matches to reach the group stages of the present version of the competition. On their route to the group stages, Basel disposed off Debrecen and then Sheriff to seal a place in the final thirty two.
The Swiss champions do have some stars of their own as the likes of Alexander Frei and Xhedan Shaqiri are expected to start the match. CFR Cluj on the other hand are without the services of Sasa Bjelanovic due to his ankle injury.
Cluj’s most probable starting line up will include the following stars; Stancioiu; Panin, Cadu, Piccolo, Edimar; Muresan, E. Kone, Costa, Bastos, Culio; Sforzini. Their opponents who usually play two strikers up front are expected to shape up with the following players; Costanzo; Inkoom, Abraham, Çagdaş, Safari; Tembo, Huggel, Yapi, Shaqiri; Frei, Streller.
A victory is expected for Cluj, given that they are playing on their home turf but one should not be surprised if Basel sneak in and come away with a draw due to their defensive discipline.
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