UEFA.com works better on other browsers
For the best possible experience, we recommend using Chrome, Firefox or Microsoft Edge.

BATE look to take first points from Juventus

From Real Madrid CF away to a home game with Juventus, FC BATE Borisov could not have had a harder start to life in the UEFA Champions League as they look to use the lessons gleaned from their Matchday 1 debut.

BATE are hoping to impress on their first home appearance in the competition
BATE are hoping to impress on their first home appearance in the competition ©Getty Images

After facing Real Madrid CF on their UEFA Champions League debut, FC BATE Borisov now cross swords with another former winner of the competition in Juventus. The Belarussian underdogs will be looking to put their first points on the board while Claudio Ranieri's side will be hoping to build on their initial victory against FC Zenit St. Petersburg.

• Viktor Goncharenko's men will have benefited from their Matchday 1 experience in which Madrid scored goals either side of half-time for their 2-0 victory, with Sergio Ramos and Ruud van Nistelrooy on the scoresheet. BATE's hopes of getting back into the game were not helped by the dismissal of Anri Khagush for a second yellow card.

• Juventus, making their return to the UEFA Champions League after a two-year absence, owed their narrow opening win to a trademark free-kick from Alessandro Del Piero. It was largely from set-pieces that the 1996 winners had threatened the UEFA Cup and UEFA Super Cup holders and with 14 minutes to go they finally made it count.

• The first representatives from Belarus to compete in the group stage of the competition remained unbeaten home and away as they progressed through all three qualifying rounds. In the first round BATE beat Valur Reykjavík 3-0 on aggregate, winning the home leg 2-0. The second round brought a 4-3 aggregate victory against RSC Anderlecht with the second leg at the Gradski Stadium ending 2-2. In the third round against PFC Levski Sofia BATE again laid the ground for victory with their away performance in the first leg, winning 1-0 in Bulgaria and drawing 1-1 at home.

• This is the first time Juventus have encountered opposition from Belarus in European club competition. BATE have met Italian sides on four occasions and only in the last fixture – at home to Bologna FC in the 2002 UEFA Intertoto Cup third round – did they avoid defeat.

• That game ended 0-0 and BATE also failed to score in the three previous fixtures as well. AC Milan beat them in Belarus (2-0) and Italy (4-0) in the 2001/02 UEFA Cup first round while Bologna won 2-0 in the home leg of the UEFA Intertoto Cup tie.

• In 2005/06 Juventus won two of their three matches away from home in the group stage. They beat Club Brugge KV 2-1 and SK Rapid Wien 3-1 and went down 2-1 at FC Bayern München. There was another defeat in Germany in the first knockout round when Werder Bremen beat them 3-2 but those away goals proved crucial as the aggregate scores finished level at 4-4.

• The quarter-finals brought them up against Arsenal FC and a 2-0 defeat in London signposted the Turin team's elimination. Their troubles were compounded with both Mauro Camoranesi and Jonathan Zebina dismissed in the final three minutes at Highbury after collecting second bookings. Juventus' home leg ended 0-0.

• In that campaign Juventus had won their first two fixtures. The previous year they won their first five while in 2003/04 their first three games all ended in victory.

• Camoranesi scored for Italy in a 4-1 victory in a FIFA World Cup qualifier away to Belarus in September 2005. Vincenzo Iaquinta came off the bench for the visitors in the second half.

• The other Matchday 2 game in the group features Zenit against Real Madrid.