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Sheriff look to make Basel blush

Published: Tuesday 17 August 2010, 11.44CET

FC Sheriff are making their tenth straight attempt to qualify for the group stage and strikers Amath Diedhiou and Jymmy França believe they can break their duck against FC Basel 1893.

by Victor Daghi

from Chisinau

Sheriff hope to repeat their celebrations of last week in Zagreb ©Serghei Socolov

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Published: Tuesday 17 August 2010, 11.44CET

Sheriff look to make Basel blush

FC Sheriff are making their tenth straight attempt to qualify for the group stage and strikers Amath Diedhiou and Jymmy França believe they can break their duck against FC Basel 1893.

For the tenth year running FC Sheriff are trying to qualify for the UEFA Champions League, and their players believe this time they might make it.

Under the old competition system, the perennial Moldovan champions exited in the second qualifying round every season from 2001/02 until 2008/09, but last term they made it to the play-offs. They could find no way past Olympiacos FC, but a UEFA Europa League group stage place proved a fine consolation, with Sheriff going on to hold their own against FC Twente, FC Steaua Bucureşti and Fenerbahce SK.

This time, having already knocked out KS Dinamo Tirana and NK Dinamo Zagreb, Sheriff are facing Switzerland's FC Basel 1893 for a UEFA Champions League group berth and quietly fancy their chances.

"I think we were lucky in terms of the draw," said the club's Senegalese striker Amath Diedhiou ahead of Wednesday's away first leg. "There were stronger clubs than Basel in our list of potential opponents. We have a good chance of getting to the group stage and we have to do all it takes to get the result."

Sheriff were held 0-0 at FC Dacia Chisinau on Saturday, but Basel lost 4-1 to FC Luzern. The Tiraspol side are also still on a high after drawing 1-1 at Dinamo Zagreb a fortnight ago, before winning an epic penalty shoot-out 6-5. Diedhiou's strike partner Jymmy França, fit again after missing the weekend fixture, said: "I said beforehand that I had a feeling we could beat Dinamo Zagreb. Now I think somehow that we will have a chance to beat Basel."

The optimism, though, was tempered by the club's Georgian captain Vazha Tarkhnishvili - the only man on Sheriff's squad who has featured in all ten UEFA Champions League bids. "Even the date of Basel's foundation, 1893, says a lot," Tarkhnishvili told UEFA.com. "This is a club with a rich history. However, there will be people not cups playing on the pitch. After last year's Europa League run and after Zagreb this year, Sheriff shouldn't be scared of anything. We will go out there and play our game. And with God's help we can be as lucky as we were in Zagreb."