July 19, 2008
by: Travis Mills
The new season of European Cup football is upon us as the UEFA Cup kicked off on Thursday, while the lower Intertoto Cup enters its third and final round on Saturday.
The Intertoto Cup has had many forms, and this year marks the last time it will take place, its lone significance this season is to determine the spots of 11 participants into the second qualifying round of the UEFA Cup.
In the central-east region of the Intertoto Cup on Saturday, Felix Katongo and his club French club Rennes open their season at home with a match against SC Tarvriya Simferopol from the Ukraine.
Tavriya defeated Molodvan-side Tiraspol 3-1 in the previous round, with all goals coming in the second leg in the Ukraine. The return leg takes place in the southern Crimean city next weekend.
Meanwhile, in the Southern-Mediterranean region, Rainford Kalaba‘s Sporting Braga travel to Turkey for Sunday’s first-leg encounter with Sivasspor.
The Turkish club from Sivas won at home 1-0 in the second leg, to pull ahead in aggregate in the last round after a 2-2 first leg match against Grbalj from Montenegro.
Both second leg matches will take place on July 26th, the winner advances automatically to the UEFA Cup’s second qualifying round in August.
Already in UEFA Cup competition is Chipolopolo captain Chris Katongo, as Brondby IF are one of four Danish teams in the first qualifying round. Their opening match took place on Thursday against B36 Torshavn from the Faroe Islands.
Sergeant ‘Tsunami’ subbed on right before half-time, in the 42nd minute. His arrival brought an immediate impact to the match as Max von Schlebrugge opened the scoring in the 48th minute. The match finished 1-0. The second leg takes place in two weeks times on the small island nation.
There are no Zambian players involved in the UEFA Champions League this season.
6 Comments on "European Cups Preview"
| COPYRIGHT © 2007-2011 Zamfoot Sports Agency. All rights reserved. |
mwape chipla on Mon, 21st Jul 2008 6:32 PM
am loving zambias performance!