Beşiktaş braced for key contest

Beşiktaş JK coach Mustafa Denizli has raised the stakes ahead of his team's UEFA Champions League Group B meeting with VfL Wolfsburg by insisting that the contest will be "the most valuable of all six games in the group". Currently second, the German side are three points ahead of the bottom-placed Turkish champions and their coach Armin Veh is confident his players will score goals despite the attacking intent of the home side and loss of suspended striker Grafite.

Mustafa Denizli, Beşiktaş coach
Arguably, the Wolfsburg game is the most valuable of all six games in the group. I expect my side to exploit all the factors we can to bring success, with good finishing touches, defensive resistance and intelligence to move the ball closer to the opposition goal. We want to claim victory and continue in the competition – we proved we were capable of that during the game in Germany. It's obvious how powerful and difficult an opponent we are at home. Our squad is large enough to comfortably field eleven in-form players under any conditions. I wish we had the missing players, though, as that would give us more alternatives: especially Nihat, İbrahim Toraman and İsmail Köybaşı. Rüştü and Tello are both doubtful. If they're fine, I'll name them in the match squad. Their absence is not the end of the world. Tomorrow's match against Wolfsburg is a game that you cannot bounce back from. If we can settle into our game strategy, we'll claim a positive result. We see Wolfsburg as a good team but not a big team. No one can say Beşiktaş gave a poor performance looking at the standings or at previous matches. We battled and showed ambition but just couldn't get the right results.

Armin Veh, Wolfsburg coach
Our problem is not up front. You can see that from the goals we've scored. We have three strikers so if one is out of form, the others can cover for him. I'm more concerned about the defence, considering the goals we've conceded in the league. This tie is very important for Beşiktaş and I expect them to play more attacking football compared to the first match in Germany. I won't take special measures in defence, but the midfielders will need to work more this time. Beşiktaş won the league and cup last season and this proves how strong they are. We know how passionate fans of İstanbul teams are and we'll play accordingly. I don't agree that collecting seven points would be enough to qualify from this group. Success in both the Champions League and Bundesliga is crucial for us.

Weekend results
31/10/09 Beşiktaş 1–0 MKE Ankaragücü
(İsmail Köybaşı 16)

• İsmail Köybaşı's goal was his first for Beşiktaş.

31/10/09 Wolfsburg 3-3 1. FSV Mainz 05
(Martins 7 20, Misimović 64; Amri 35, Ivanschitz 41, Hoogland 85)

• Obafemi Martins scored two goals in a game for the first time since Newcastle United FC's 2-0 victory over Aston Villa FC on 3 November 2008.

• The draw against Mainz extended Wolfsburg's unbeaten Bundesliga run to six games.

Team news
Beşiktaş
Out: Filip Hološko (broken foot), Rıdvan Şimşek (groin), Nihat Kahveci (hamstring), İbrahim Toraman (knee), İsmail Köybaşı (ankles)
Doubtful: Rodrigo Tello (hamstring), Rüştü Reçber (waist)
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: Tomáš Sivok

Wolfsburg
Out: Karim Ziani (thigh)
Doubtful:
Suspended: Grafite
Misses next match if booked: none

Background
• Beşiktaş got their first point on the board after drawing 0-0 at Wolfsburg on Matchday 3, but are still off the pace, with Wolfsburg second on four points – five adrift of section leaders Manchester United FC.

• Prior to that Matchday 3 draw, Beşiktaş had lost all five of their encounters with Bundesliga sides.

• The Turkish champions lost and failed to score on the two previous occasions they faced German visitors: a 2-0 home reverse against FC Bayern München in the 1997/98 UEFA Champions League group stage and a 1-0 defeat against BV Borussia Dortmund in Istanbul in the 1989/90 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup first round, en route to a 3-1 aggregate defeat.

• Wolfsburg have never played in Turkey before but their first Group B away assignment brought a narrow defeat at United and they lost only once of four away UEFA Cup matches in 2008/09.

Did you know?
Wolfsburg striker Edin Džeko scored in Bosnia-Herzegovina's 2-1 defeat by Turkey in a FIFA World Cup qualifier at Beşiktaş's Inönü Stadium in October 2008.