European Football

European outposts prepare for visiting aristocrats

02:30 BST, Tue 30 Sep 2008
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Juventus' Alessandro Del Piero (R) and Zenit St. Petersburg's Aleksandr Anyukov fight for the ball during their Champions League soccer match at the Olympic stadium in Turin September 17, 2008.  REUTERS/Giampiero Sposito (ITALY)

By Mike Collett

LONDON, Sept 30 (Reuters) - The soccer outposts of Aalborg, Borisov and St Petersburg will be welcoming leading aristocrats of the European game when the second round of Champions League group matches gets underway on Tuesday.

Title holders Manchester United visit Danish champions AaB Aalborg in Group E while former champions Juventus travel to Belarus for a Group H game against BATE Borisov.

Nine-times European champions Real Madrid, also in Group H, make a similarly long trip into eastern Europe to face Zenit St Petersburg, the Russian champions and UEFA Cup holders, who have only lost once at home in 21 European matches.

Fiorentina and Steaua Bucharest meet for the first time in a Group F match in Florence but otherwise old rivalries will be renewed.

Villarreal entertain Celtic in Group E and Bayern Munich are at home to Olympique Lyon in Group F, while Arsenal face Porto and Fenerbahce meet Dynamo Kiev in Group G.

Manchester United, who travel without Owen Hargreaves and Gary Neville, have never met AaB, but were upset 1-0 by FC Copenhagen on their last visit to Denmark two years ago.

They will be especially keen to collect three points on Tuesday after drawing 0-0 with Villarreal at Old Trafford in their opening match two weeks ago.

Arsenal will be keen for their match against Porto to get underway at the Emirates for the chance to bounce back as quickly as possible from a shock 2-1 defeat by promoted Hull City in the Premier League there on Saturday.

Matches in Groups A to D take place on Wednesday.

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