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| May 18, 2005 | Wednesday | Rabi-us-Sani 9, 1426 |
Sporting on home ground for UEFA Cup final
LISBON, May 17: Sporting coach Jose Peseiro believes home advantage will not be a significant factor in the UEFA Cup final against Russia’s CSKA Moscow on Wednesday. Three years after Feyenoord won the UEFA Cup in their own De Kuip stadium, Sporting will bid to match the feat at their Jose Alvalade ground in Lisbon.
“Portugal were favourites to beat Greece (on home soil) in Euro 2004 and look what happened,” said Peseiro. “You can’t take anything for granted.”
Other than Feyenoord, three clubs have achieved the feat in European club competition history — Real Madrid in the 1957 European Cup, Inter Milan in the same competition eight years later and Barcelona, who lifted the 1982 UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup.
Sporting’s only European trophy was the 1963-1964 Cup Winners’ Cup when they beat Hungary’s MTK Budapest.
Their performances in this season’s competition, in which they are averaging more than two goals a game, make them favourites for the trophy and they boast a matchwinner in Liedson. The Brazilian striker, the Portuguese league’s top scorer, has hit nine UEFA Cup goals.
CSKA are only the second Russian team, and the first for 33 years, to reach the final of a major European competition.
The army side expect to have only 2,000 fans in the Alvalade Stadium but coach Valery Gazzayev feels his team can handle the pressure.
The final will be CSKA’s 19th European match this season, equalling the most ever played in a season.
Having exited the Champions League after the group stage, CSKA offloaded Sergei Semak to France’s PSG and Czech midfielder Jiri Jarosik to English Premier League leaders Chelsea.
Brazilian striker Vagner Love’s move back home to Corinthians fell through, however, and his goals, along with those of fellow Brazilian Daniel Carvalho, helped CSKA to overcome Benfica, Partizan Belgrade, AJ Auxerre and Parma en route to the final.
—Reuters
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