Steaua stay on course

uefa.com brings you the latest from Group B ahead of the third instalment of action on Thursday.

Steaua
FC Steaua Bucuresti stayed two points clear at the top of Romania's first division after overcoming FC Brasov 3-2 at home on 20 November. The game was played at the National stadium to allow Steaua's own Ghencea stadium to be in peak condition for the arrival of Besiktas JK on Thursday. Captain Mirel Radoi returned from a two-week lay-off and goalkeeper Vasili Khomutovski was also back after injury. However, defenders Florentin Dumitru and Tiberiu Curt are out until the new year. The Steaua goalscorers were Laurentiu Dinita, Nicolae Dica and Gabriel Bostina.

Besiktas
Besiktas dropped points in the Turkish Superleague as Rizespor forced a 2-2 draw at the Inönü stadium. The hosts twice fell behind to goals from Okan Öztürk, requiring strikes from Ahmed Hassan and Ibrahim Akin to save their blushes. Besiktas remain 17 points adrift of leaders Fenerbahçe SK. A decision on Daniel Pancu's fitness for the match against his compatriots will be left to coach Vicente Del Bosque after the Romanian forward recovered from a knee injury. Defender Ronaldo Guiaro is still out with a broken arm, while goalkeeper Óscar Córdoba is back from an achilles injury but behind Ramazan Kursunlu and Murat Sahin in the pecking order.

Parma
Parma FC lost 2-0 at ACF Fiorentina in the first leg of their Coppa Italia third-round tie on 20 November. Coach Silvio Baldini was without midfielder Domenico Morfeo because of a foot injury, with Alessandro Rosina deputising. However, Morfeo should be fit for the trip to R. Standard de Liège. Parma fell behind in Florence to a Javier Portillo goal on 27 minutes. Although Baldini introduced Marco Marchionni and Massimo Maccarone in the second half, Fiorentina scored again eight minutes from time.

Standard
Standard warmed up for Parma's visit by reaching the last 16 of the Belgian Cup with a 4-1 home victory against Patro Maasmechelen. Striker Sambegou Bangoura celebrated his return from a groin injury with a goal, joining Sérgio Conceição, Mohamed Tchite and Aleksandar Mutavdzic on the scoresheet. However, Brazilian forward Wamberto remains sidelined with a calf problem.

Athletic
Athletic Club Bilbao sit out this week's action and instead must ponder their 3-2 defeat at Basque rivals Real Sociedad de Fútbol at the weekend. Santiago Ezquerro and Ismael Urzaiz gave Ernesto Valverde's team a half-time lead, but Athletic were undone by goals from Nihat Kahveci (2) and Igor Gabilando. They were not helped by the sending-off of goalkeeper Daniel Aranzubia, who will miss the next league game along with Asier Del Horno, who was booked.