The Old Lady Returns to the European Stage Tonight

Last year’s third place in Serie A earned the Turin outfit a qualifying spot into this years Champions League edition. Qualifying to the tournament was an easy task, but staying in it will be a whole other story.

Drawn in group H alongside Real Madrid and two first timers Bate Borisov and Zenit st. Petersburg is going to make qualifying through to the knock-out stages a tough mission.

Even though it’s the Russian side’s first appearance in the Champions League, Dik Advocaat’s men are no strangers to the European stage. Zenit are the current Uefa Cup and Uefa Super Cup holders – where the incidentally beat Manchester United with 2-1 – showing that they are not here be played around with.

Juventus has opened the season in a fashionable way with four points after the first two games. Ranieri’s men outplayed Udinese during most of last week’s game and newly arrived forward Amauri got to introduce himself to the Juventus fans by scoring the only goal in the game.

Although Zenit is currently parked at a seventh place in their domestic league table with two thirds of the league already played, their form is picking up with four wins in the five latest games.

Chiellini returned to the defense last week pairing up with new centre-back Mellberg. The defense work between the two looked solid throughout the game with Mellberg always in the vicinity of Buffon.

Nedved looks younger for each passing game and with Poulsen and Sissoko adding muscle to the central midfield along with Camoranesi they take Juventus up another level.

Upfront Ranieri is going to play Del Piero alongside Trezeguet, both of whom were substituted on in the dying minutes of last week’s game. Both forwards have vast experience of the tournament, but the main reason being the sacrifice both players made by staying at the club and working hard to bring it back where it belongs.

Regarding the history of the tournament and Zenit’s recent achievements there will be no underestimation from Juventus’ side. The road to European glory begins tonight.