Marcus Christenson 

Grazer planning to flex muscles at the Schwarzenegger

Liverpool's opponents in the Champions League qualifier are promising to supply some red heat in the Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium on Tuesday.
  
  


'We are not a sparring partner, we can put up a real fight,' says a bullish Grazer AK captain Anton Ehmann ahead of the third-round Champions League qualifier against Liverpool at the Arnold Schwarzenegger stadium in Graz on Tuesday. GAK won the 2003-04 Austrian league by a point and came close to eliminating Ajax at this stage last season, drawing 1-1 at home before going down 2-1 in Amsterdam after extra-time.

Their main danger comes from 27-year-old striker Roland Kollmann, who scored 27 goals in 32 league games last season. He is likely to be partnered by new signing Alen Skoro, who has arrived from Olimpija Laibach with a reputation for being the 'Bosnian David Beckham'. Tall and commanding Croat defender Mario Tokic will try to subdue Michael Owen, Djibril Cissé and Milan Baros, and he is also one of the team's most dangerous players at set pieces. Coach Walter Schachner usually plays a tight 4-4-2 formation, and his team will aim to deny the Liverpool players any space. 'We have a 30-per-cent chance of qualifying,' he says.

Manchester United take on Dinamo Bucharest after the Romanian champions beat Zilina in the second qualifying round. Dinamo have lost two of their best players, defender Cosmin Barcauan and midfielder Dan Alexa, over the summer and will be without their number-one goalkeeper, Cristian Munteanu, after he was sent off against Zilina. The club signed eight players in the summer, but only veteran midfielder Liviu Ciubotariu has any experience of playing in western Europe. He will lead a three-man defence that can only be described as sluggish. Last season's top scorer, Ionel Danciulescu, is still at the club and fellow-forward Claudiu Niculescu is also a threat.

Rangers, meanwhile, take on CSKA Moscow, currently fifth in the Russian league. The club signed a three-year, £29m sponsorship deal with oil company Sibneft earlier this year and have since bought Czech international midfielder Jiri Jarosik, Croatian international striker Ivica Olic and Brazilian striker Vagner Love.

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