Coaches' friendship put aside in Athens

Henk ten Cate was Frank Rijkaard's assistant for three years at FC Barcelona but the forthright Panathinaikos FC coach is not exactly crippled by an inferiority complex. While he may not carry out his threat to "kill" his compatriot if Rijkaard leads Galatasaray AŞ to victory at the OACA Spiros Louis Stadium in Athens, both coaches admit their friendship will be put to one side for two hours on Thursday.

Productive partnership
"It will be an interesting game," said Rijkaard. "It's something special because I worked with Henk and normally cheer for his team. Now it's different but the important thing is that the friendship remains afterwards." Their relationship was forged at Camp Nou, where the pair combined to guide Barcelona to back-to-back Liga titles and the 2005/06 UEFA Champions League, laying the foundations for the Blaugrana's current supremacy.

Cissé suspended
Ten Cate departed in 2006, with Rijkaard soon following suit, and they are thriving in very different arenas as this Group F opener brings together two of Europe's in-form sides. One hundred per cent starts to their domestic campaigns leave Panathinaikos and Galatasaray top in Greece and Turkey. "The teams are pretty equal in quality and strength," said Ten Cate. "As a team has strengths they also have weaknesses, and if Galatasaray's strength is their forward line then maybe their defence is a weakness." It is a view echoed by Dimitris Salpingidis as he prepares to lead the line in the absence of Djibril Cissé, who starts a three-match ban resulting from the Greens' UEFA Champions League play-off defeat by Club Atlético de Madrid.

New blood
Cissé has caught the eye since his summer arrival and though Ten Cate points out that "he was not with us last year and we did pretty well in Europe", the 54-year-old does credit the new blood with invigorating his side. Sunday's 1-0 triumph at Panthrakikos FC maintained their two-point advantage at the Super League summit. "Bringing new players into the team has boosted confidence and our attitude has definitely improved," he said. "[Kostas] Katsouranis and the likes of [Sebastian] Leto are having a real impact. Leto has scored more goals [four] in his first four matches here than he did all last season at Olympiacos FC."

Galatasaray absences
Ten Cate stresses that the Greek title is Panathinaikos's priority, but it did not stop him jokingly threatening to kill Rijkaard if he "comes here and takes my points". Despite – or maybe because of – an emphatic 3-0 derby victory over Beşiktaş JK at the weekend, Rijkaard was quite measured in comparison, being at his most animated when he lamented the absence of Gökhan Zan and Servet Çetin through injury and flu respectively.