HISTORY WILL TAKE PLACE IN BURSA,TURKEY

Bursaspor vs Valencia preview.....

First ever UEFA's Champions League match for city of Bursa ,Turkey and Bursaspor and their fans....

The city of Bursa will welcome Valencia team in their first match....

Bursaspor have played only eight European matches, have won just two, have lost all their last four without scoring and have failed to score in six of their eight games.


They last played in the 1986-87 Cup Winners Cup when they lost home and away to Ajax Amsterdam in the first round.



Valencia lost on their last visit to Turkey, going down 1-0 to Genclerbirligi in the 2003-04 Uefa Cup .

Bursaspor may not have the European history of the other teams in their group, but Valencia coach Unai Emery insists his side will not be treating them lightly.

"They were a little-known team, but the champions of the Turkish league are no longer that. We have the utmost respect for them. With all that we've seen we feel they are a great team," said Emery.

Valencia have Turkish midfielder Mehmet Topal, who should know plenty about Bursaspor having spent the last four seasons at Turkish giants Galatasaray before switching to Spain this summer.

The Turkey international said: "The Bursaspor fans will be their 12th player, they keep going throughout the match, but there's no need to take this as a disadvantage, only that Valencia will have to go out and do their jobs to win.

"Bursaspor have good players but the squad is very good, we need to take care with the whole team, not any specific individual."

Topal added: "All the teams in the Champions League are very strong, but Valencia would like to get through the group and we will do everything we can to win."

Bursaspor coach ERtugrul Saglam's remarks.....

"Valencia have been strong at European level for many years and they won't be easy opponents. They lost some important players from last season but replaced them with new ones and as far as we can see from the analysis, they are a 'system team' who can play good team football. It'll be an extremely competitive game and Valencia can be seen as favourites but we want to make a bright start. The favourites do not win all the time and we'll try to show this. We'll face Valencia without changing the system which took us to success last season.

You need to have physical abilities in order to win games like this and we have this quality. We'll use this as an advantage tomorrow. When you look at Valencia, there are talented players like Joaquín Sánchez, Vicente Rodríguez, Juan Mata and Aritz Aduriz. When you look at us, you see Ozan İpek, Pablo Batalla, Sercan Yıldırım, Federico Insúa and Ivan Ergić. In my eyes, they have the same quality. "

He went on to say, “We want to make a good start to the Champions League. We want to represent our country well in that tournament, since we are the only Turkish outfit in the competition. And we want to get our first points in that match.”

Can they do it?

They have a great chance to start this historical day in front of their own fans..

I believe they could do it , if they believed in it...