Ferrara seeks winning start with Juve

A UEFA Champions League winner with Juventus as a player, Ciro Ferrara makes his debut in the competition as coach of the Bianconeri when they welcome FC Girondins de Bordeaux to Turin for their opening Group A fixture.

Quotes
Ciro Ferrara, Juventus coach
Tomorrow we will not play a normal game, as the first match of the group phase always carries some risks and Bordeaux were the most dangerous team in the third seeding pot. This will be a special game for me as I am a debutant in Europe, so I'm asking my players for maximum concentration. The UEFA Champions League is a different competition from Serie A and to reach the first knockout round it is necessary to avoid any errors. I have beautiful memories of Laurent Blanc. We recently met in Nyon and it was a great pleasure; he is working well and we respect each other. We have clear ideas about the team and the players we will face on the pitch. Bordeaux will field many talented players, like Yoann Gourcuff, Marouane Chamakh and Yoan Gouffran. They defend strong, are fast on the counterattack and dangerous from dead balls.

Laurent Blanc, Bordeaux coach
I've been watching Juventus games since the start of the season and I know their style is very physical with a lot of pressing. They will miss Diego, but Juventus have a very strong squad and can call on Sebastian Giovinco instead. I'm very happy to see Ciro Ferrara has been getting good results in his first Serie A games. I have known him for a long time, since we played together with Napoli. He was very young then but he was already a leader on the pitch and even if I didn't know he would become a coach, I already knew he had great qualities and now he is showing them as a coach.

Key stats
• Part of the Juventus team that lifted the trophy in 1996, Ferrara will hope to make a winning start against opponents who have never before prevailed on Italian soil. His Bordeaux counterpart, Blanc, will have other ideas as he looks to get one over his 1991/92 SSC Napoli team-mate.

• A quarter of a century has passed since the clubs met in the 1984/85 European Champion Clubs' Cup semi-finals when Juventus prevailed 3-2 on aggregate en route to winning the trophy. Juventus subsequently beat Liverpool FC in the final but for Bordeaux that last-four appearance remains the pinnacle of their European Cup achievement.

• Two-time European champions Juventus have recorded eight wins and a draw from nine previous home games against French opponents. Their most recent visitors from Ligue 1 were Stade Rennais FC, whom they defeated 2-0 in a UEFA Intertoto Cup tie in August 1999.

• Bordeaux have never won in Italy, where their record reads two draws and five defeats from seven previous trips. Last season they lost home and away to AS Roma in the UEFA Champions League group stage.

Team news
• Juventus
Out: Diego (thigh), Alessandro Del Piero (thigh), Zdeněk Grygera (knee), Mohamed Sissoko (foot), Hasan Salihamidžić (ankle, knee)
Suspended: Giorgio Chiellini (serving second of one-match ban)
Misses next match if booked: none

• Bordeaux
Out: none
Suspended: none
Misses next match if booked: none

Weekend results
12/09/09 S.S. Lazio 0-2 Juventus
(Cáceres 72, Trezeguet 90)

12/09/09 Bordeaux 1-0 Grenoble Foot 38
(Gouffran 18)

Did you know?
Laurent Blanc played alongside Juventus forward David Trezeguet in the France team that captured the 1998 FIFA World Cup.