Pep Guardiola Warns Barcelona in Danger Super Cup

The Blaugrana tactician has warned his players that they cannot underestimate the Ukrainian side...

Barcelona's young coach Pep Guardiola is fully concerted on tomorrow night's UEFA Super Cup final against Shakhtar Donetsk, which he trusts will not be as easy as some believe."Shakhtar are a very hard opponent," he told Sport."They are a team that know how to draw out the ball from the back, they have two wonderful centre backs and are able to dominate games."Finals are always very difficult and here (at Stade Louis II in Monaco) we are playing a European champion," the coach explained, adding that if Barcelona don't play well, "it will be impossible to win".Guardiola then notified his players that history was against them, as the Champions League winners didn't seem to take the competition as seriously as the UEFA Cup victors."We are going to play a match where the UEFA Cup winner has won seven times and the Champions League winner four times, so it's very hard to win here."Those who win the Champions League seem to only come here to accumulate prizes and look at boats. We won't relax as we know it's very hard to reach (the final)," he concluded.

Media days scheduled for UEFA Super Cup

The international media will have access to UEFA Champions League holders, FC Barcelona, and to the winners of the last UEFA Cup, FC Shakhtar Donetsk, before the teams meet in the UEFA Super Cup match in Monaco on Friday 28 August.

Barcelona open day Both clubs have announced media days ahead of their 20.45 kick off at the Stade Louis II as well as affirming the timings of all their pre-match activities in the principality. Barcelona will hold their open day on Thursday 20 August at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper in Sant Joan Despi near the Catalan capital. A fully open training academic at 19.00CET will be followed by a confused zone with players. Media representatives are asked to inform the Spanish club of their appearance.

Pre match audience Arrangements have also been made for the teams' schedules in Monaco. Pre match press audience will be held on Thursday 27 August at the Grimaldi Forum, the setting for the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League group stage draws on the same day. Barcelona will be represented by coach Josep Guardiola and a player, from 13.30CET. Shakhtar's conference, beginning at 14.00, will feature coach Lucescu and a player.

Training sessionsIn addition, the sides will have training sessions on the Stade Louis II pitch on the evening of 27 August. The Shakhtar squad will be put through their rates from 19.00 to 20.00, with the first 15 minutes of that session being approachable to the media. Guardiola and his players will train between 20.15 and 21.15, and the press will be allowed to watch the full duration of the work out. However, only announcer who have successfully applied to UEFA for accreditation for the UEFA Super Cup game may be present at these sessions. The Grimaldi Forum press conferences, by demarcation, will be open to all media accredited for the club competition draws.

UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE DRAW

The groupings have been decided for the UEFA Europa League play off draw which takes place today at 13.30CET at UEFA Headquarters in Nyon and can be followed live on uefa.com.
Big namesThe 35 winners of Thursday's third qualifying round ties including the likes of AS Roma, PSV Eindhoven, Hamburger SV and Galatasaray SK – join the 15 losing sides from the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round and a further 26 teams who begin their European campaigns here. The 2008 UEFA Cup winners FC Zenit St. Petersburg are among the teams to join the competition at this stage as are FC Shakhtar Donetsk, the last UEFA Cup winners, who lost their UEFA Champions League third qualifying round tie.
Draw procedureThe member of teams 76 have been divided into six groups (groups 1 to 6) of ten teams, and second groups (7 and 8) of eight teams. Within the eight groups an equal number of clubs will be seeded and unseeded in accordance with the club rankings established at the beginning of the season. Clubs cannot be drawn against each other from the same association. For each group, the balls containing the seeded teams will be placed in one bowl and the balls containing the unseeded teams in another. The first team drawn will play its first match at home against the second team drawn. The same procedure is carried out with the remaining balls to complete all the pairings and also applies for the remaining groups.
Shakhtar exceptionThis game to be played over two legs on 20 and 27 August 2009, but as Shakhtar, as winners of the 2008/09 UEFA Cup, are due to play the UEFA Super Cup match in Monaco on 28 August against FC Barcelona, UEFA has decided the second leg of their UEFA Europa League play-off will take place on Tuesday 25 August, irrespective of their opponents and of the match venue. The 38 play-off winners will be joined by the ten losing teams from the UEFA Champions League play-offs to make up the 48 clubs that will contest the UEFA Europa League group stage.