Getafe hopeful of Bayern upset
Friday, April 4, 2008
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After already accounting for some big names, Getafe CF will hope to pull off yet another UEFA Cup upset following their 1-1 first-leg draw at FC Bayern München.
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After already accounting for some big names, Getafe CF will hope to pull off yet another UEFA Cup upset following their 1-1 first-leg draw at FC Bayern München.
• Substitute Cosmin Contra struck in the 90th minute to earn Michael Laudrup's side a great result in Munich after Luca Toni had once again found the target for UEFA Cup favourites Bayern. The hosts were left to rue a number of missed chances.
• Contra insisted his side would not play it safe in the second leg, though, saying: "We will play the game according to our strengths as we always do. To do otherwise would be suicide for us. The return is going to be hard. But Getafe tend to play well when big sides come to the Coliseum, and Bayern are a big side."
• RSC Anderlecht, Tottenham Hotspur FC, AEK Athens FC and SL Benfica have all been beaten by Getafe this season, and the Spanish side can look forward to their 12th game in European competition with hope.
• Bayern have played in plenty of games against Spanish sides over the years – 34 in total – winning 17, drawing nine and losing eight.
• Their 15 away games against Spanish sides have produced four wins, three draws and eight defeats.
• Bayern have won two European finals against Spanish sides. They beat Club Atlético de Madrid 5-1 over two legs to claim the 1973/74 European Champion Clubs' Cup, and then beat Valencia CF 5-4 on penalties after a 1-1 draw in the 2000/01 UEFA Champions League final in Milan.
• Getafe by contrast are up against German opposition for the first time.
• Getafe's Rubén De La Red was an unused substitute as Real Madrid CF lost 2-1 to Bayern in the second leg of last season's UEFA Champions League first knockout round. His side lost on away goals with the aggregate score 4-4.
• Bayern coach Ottmar Hitzfeld has never won the UEFA Cup before, although he has twice triumphed in the UEFA Champions League – with BV Borussia Dortmund in 1996/97 and in his first spell with Bayern in 2000/01. The 59-year-old will step down at the end of the season to become the new coach of Switzerland.
• Hitzfeld is looking to claim his fifth German title with Bayern this season as well as his third German Cup, before Jürgen Klinsmann replaces him.
• Getafe coach Michael Laudrup had a more illustrious playing career than Hitzfeld, but the 104-times capped former playmaker, named Denmark's best player of all time in 2006, is behind in terms of European honours, boasting only one European Champion Clubs' Cup triumph to his name – with FC Barcelona in 1991/92.
• Laudrup has been involved in a number of games against the German and West German national teams – five as a player and one as assistant Denmark coach: a 2-1 win against a Germany side featuring Bayern coach Oliver Kahn in 2001. However, he was not in the Denmark squad that beat Germany in the 1992 UEFA European Championship, due to differences with coach Richard Møller Nielsen.
• Laudrup also faced Kahn as a player in a 2-0 friendly win for Germany in 1996. In total, his five games against Germany as a player ended in four defeats and one win – a 2-0 victory at the 1986 FIFA World Cup finals.
• Following the first leg in Munich, the Getafe coach has now been involved in ten matches against German sides at club level.
• Two of those games were as a coach with Brøndby IF, as his side lost 2-1 away and won 2-1 at home against FC Schalke 04 in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup second round, winning the tie 3-1 on penalties. Bayern's Hamit Altıntop played both legs for Schalke, and missed a penalty in the shoot-out.
• As a player, Laudrup played seven games against German clubs, winning four, drawing two, losing one and scoring once. The four wins all came at home, with two defeats and a draw away so he has never won a game on German soil as a player or a coach.
• Having played in the last two UEFA Cup campaigns with Sevilla FC, Getafe striker Kepa Blanco is on course for a third successive UEFA Cup-winning campaign, provided Getafe win the competition at the first attempt.
• Blanco played six games in the 2005/06 campaign, scoring once, but was an unused substitute in the 4-0 final win against Middlesbrough FC.
• He also featured six times last season, scoring three, but spent the latter half of the season on loan at West Ham United FC and thus missed Sevilla's penalty shoot-out success against RCD Espanyol in the final.
• Getafe and FC Zenit St. Petersburg are the only sides left in the competition never to have won a major European trophy.
• Bayern have by far the most impressive track record of the remaining competitors, having been European champions four times – in 1973/74, 1974/75, 1975/76 and 2000/01 – as well as UEFA Cup winners in 1995/96 and UEFA Cup Winners' Cup winners in 1966/67.
• Getafe defender Franck Signorino played alongside fellow Frenchman Franck Ribéry, now a star at Bayern, at Ligue 1 side FC Metz in 2004/05 – although Ribéry moved to Galatasaray AS for the latter half of the campaign. Signorino joined FC Nantes Atlantique the following season, while Ribéry moved to Olympique de Marseille.
• Bayern's Mark van Bommel will have plenty of useful inside information on Spanish football, having played for FC Barcelona in their title-winning 2005/06 season. Zé Roberto also played in Spain with Real Madrid CF in 1997.
• Bayern's Luca Toni is the joint-top scorer in this season's UEFA Cup, level with Zenit's Pavel Pogrebnyak on eight goals. Team-mates Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski have also scored five apiece.
• Getafe's joint-top scorers are midfielders Pablo Hernández and Esteban Granero with four goals each.
• Having returned from suspension for the first leg, another booking means Toni – along with team-mate Van Bommel - is within a caution of a ban.
• Getafe's Lucas Licht also returns from suspension, but Granero is serving a one-match ban after a first-leg booking. Goalkeeper Pato, Juan Albín, Javier Casquero and Mario Cotelo are within a booking of a ban.
• Having finished top of UEFA Cup Group F, Bayern defeated Aberdeen FC and Anderlecht to book their place in the quarter-finals. Getafe won Group G, and then overcame AEK and Benfica to reach the last eight.
• The winners of this tie will face either Bayer 04 Leverkusen or Zenit in the semi-finals, playing the first leg at home on 24 April and the away game on 1 May.
• The winners of that tie will be the nominal home team in the UEFA Cup final at the City of Manchester Stadium on 14 May.