Pastures new for Partizan

FK Partizan open their group campaign with a match against newcomers Egaleo FC, who are in their first season of qualifying for UEFA club competitions.

Romanian barrier
Partizan, whose first meeting this will be with a Greek club, despite playing in UEFA club competitions since the first Champion Clubs’ Cup in 1955/56, have beaten two Romanian clubs to reach the group stage. In the second qualifying round, they accounted for FC Otelul Galati with a goal after 29 minutes from Srdjan Radonjic in the return home leg, which proved the only score of the tie. Partizan then faced FC Dinamo Bucuresti, who had been beaten by Manchester United FC in the UEFA Champoions League third qualifying round, and gained an impressive 3-1 home win after falling a goal behind. Goals from Ivan Tomic, Pierre Boya and Brnovic enabled Partizan to complete a fine recovery. A scoreless draw in the return game was enough to earn their progress to Group E.

Greek tragedy
Egaleo were one of three Greek clubs to lose in the opening round of group matches, along with Panionios NFC and AEK Athens FC, when they conceded home advantage in a 1-0 defeat by Middlesbrough FC. But their previous away game in the competition was a fine 1-1 draw in Turkey against Gençlerbirligi SK, which enabled the Greek club to advance to the group stage with a 2-1 win on aggregate.