Rubin Kazan-Fc Barcelona, Champions league coverage: All the records

Before going in details about the match tomorrow, where we will have a match preview on The offside, added to Interviews from Kazan and match polls here on Football Mood. It is fitting to start with match records. You can find the following info on UEFA's site but here it is packed and delivered in a more organized way -or so I think.

FC Rubin Kazan (Russian: Футбольный клуб Рубин Казань, Futbolniy klub Rubin Kazan; Tatar: Рубин Казан футбол клубы) is a Russian football club based in the city of Kazan (Tatarstan republic). Rubin won the Russian Premier League championship for 2009, its second straight league title.

Rubin was previously called "Iskra" from 1958 to 1964, and then "Rubin-TAN" from 1992 to 1993. Having never played in the Soviet Top League, Rubin were promoted to the Russian Premier League in 2003, finishing third in their debut season to qualify for the UEFA Cup. Their 2004 campaign was less successful as they came 10th, but 2005 saw them finish 4th, again qualifying for the UEFA Cup.

In 2008, Rubin won the league championship to qualify for the 2009–10 UEFA Champions League Group stage, making them the easternmost team to play in the competition. Their championship season began with a league record seven consecutive wins, including victories against defending champions Zenit Saint Petersburg. Rubin clinched its first championship in club history[2] and became only the third club from outside Moscow to win the Russian Premier League (after Spartak-Alania Vladikavkaz and Zenit St Petersburg).

In 2010 Rubin won the CIS Cup, becoming the first Russian team since 2005 to win that title. In the final Rubin had beaten FC Aktobe 5-2.

In September 2009, Rubin were the unknowing participants in a bizarre transfer saga involving four Levski Sofia players (Zhivko Milanov, Youssef Rabeh, Darko Tasevski and Ze Soares). The Bulgarian champions allegedly received a fax, supposedly from the Kazan team, offering to buy the footballers. The quoted sum was 7 million€. On 20 September 2009, the four players, accompanied by a Levski representative, travelled to Moscow to undergo a medical examination, but the deal allegedly fell through, as the phony Rubin representative offered lower salaries than those originally agreed. Official Rubin representatives denied any knowledge of the whole affair, maintaining that they knew nothing about the players in question. It turned out that Levski had fallen victims to fraudsters. It is thought that the incident was masterminded to defraud bookmakers by placing large bets against Levski in their derby match against city rivals CSKA Sofia.^(Wiki)

In the UEFA competitions, their Biggest home wins are 3-0: v Hapoel Tel-Aviv FC 18/02/10, UEFA Europa League round of 32 first leg and 3-0: v FC BATE Borisov10/08/06, UEFA Cup second qualifying round first leg. While the Biggest away win was 0-3 against Zalaegerszegi TE, UEFA Intertoto Cup second round first leg.

Their Heaviest home defeat was 0-3: v SK Rapid Wien 26/08/04, UEFA Cup second qualifying round second leg. Their Heaviest away defeats are 3-1: FC Dynamo Kyiv v Rubin16/09/09, UEFA Champions League group stage. Added to 3-1: SK Rapid Wien v Rubin 21/07/07, UEFA Intertoto Cup third round first leg and 2-0: FC Internazionale Milano v Rubin 09/12/09, UEFA Champions League group stage

Rubin Kazan didn’t play against any other Spanish club beside Barcelona last season where they defeated the Catalans 1-2 at the Camp nou before recording a goalless draw in Kazan.

Coached by the 58 years old ex-defender and midfielder Kurban Berdyev since 2001, the team won the second tier in 2002, finished third in 2003 and then won their first league championship in 2008; Muslim Berdyev marked that achievement by going on pilgrimage to Mecca.

A very private man, Berdyev – who guided Rubin to a second Premier-Liga title in 2009 – rarely gives interviews and generally works without an assistant.

This season they made lot of changes in the squad adding Oleg Kuzmin (FC Lokomotiv Moskva), Obafemi Martins (VfL Wolfsburg),Carlos Eduardo (TSG 1899 Hoffenheim), Giedrius Arlauskis (FC Unirea Urziceni), Aleksei Medvedev (FC Sibir Novosibirsk), Salvatore Bocchetti (Genoa CFC), Sergei Kornilenko (FC Zenit St. Petersburg, loan), Alexandru Antoniuc (FC Zimbru Chişinău).

Players who left the club this season are: Aleksandr Bukharov (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Sergei Semak (FC Zenit St. Petersburg), Hasan Kabze (Montpellier Hérault SC), Fatih Tekke (Beşiktaş JK), Jordi (Real Valladolid CF, loan), Vagis Galiulin (FC Sibir Novosibirsk, loan), Evgeni Cheremisin (FC Dinamo St. Petersburg, loan), Davron Mirzaev (FC Khimki, loan), Aleksei Kotlyarov (FC Khimki, loan)

Rubin Kazan played 20 games in the Russian league so far, winning 13 matches and losing two, collecting 46 points in the second place four points behind Fc Zenit.

Their last home defeat goes back 4 months and 14 days 0-1 against CSKA Moskva.

Barcelona played five games at home against Russian clubs winning three and losing two, while out of five matches in Russia Barcelona won a game and the rest were draws. , drew one, and lost two. The Catalans scored 17 times against the Russians and conceded ten.

Barcelona have won their group in each of the last three seasons and qualified for the knockout rounds eight times in the last nine campaigns, the sole exception being 2003/04 when they were not involved in the competition.

Barcelona won five out of six home games last season before their semi-final defeat, a 1-0 home win against Inter insufficient to overturn a 3-1 first-leg deficit. They also faced the Nerazzurri in the opening group fixture 12 months ago, a game which ended goalless in San Siro. That ended a run of nine successive Matchday 1 victories for the Catalan club dating back to 1999/2000. The last time they lost their first UEFA Champions League fixture of the season was in 1997/98 when they went down 3-2 at Newcastle United FC. They have won nine and drawn two of the subsequent 11 opening games.

Barcelona won four games in the liga and suffered one defeat at home against Newly promoted Hercules 0-2, which puts them in the third position with 12 points equaling Villarreal the second and one point behind Valencia.

Matchday 1 (14/09/10)

Barcelona 5-1 Panathinaikos

Goals: 0-1 Govou 20, 1-1 Messi 22, 2-1 Villa 33, 3-1 Messi 45, 4-1 Pedro Rodríguez 78, 5-1 Daniel Alves 90+3

FC Barcelona: Víctor Valdés, Daniel Alves, Piqué (Milito 75), Puyol, Xavi Hernández (Mascherano 79), Villa (Bojan 69), Iniesta, Messi, Busquets, Pedro Rodríguez, Abidal

København 1-0 Rubin

Goals: 1-0 N'Doye 87

FC Rubin Kazan: Ryzhikov, Ansaldi, Salukvadze, Murawski, Noboa, Kaleshin, Orekhov, Bocchetti (Kuzmin 65), Martins (Kasaev 58), Carlos Eduardo (Gökdeniz Karadeniz 77), Kornilenko

Referee Cüneyt Çakır (TUR)

Assistant referees Bahattin Duran (TUR), Tarik Ongun (TUR)

Additional assistant referee Fırat Aydınus (TUR)

Additional assistant referee Tolga Ozkalfa (TUR)

Fourth official Süleyman Abay (TUR)

UEFA Delegate Bernd Barutta (GER)

UEFA Referee observer Kaj Østergaard (DEN)

Name Cüneyt Çakır

Date of birth 23/11/1976

UEFA Champions League matches 0

UEFA matches 33

• One of Turkey's most promising match officials, Cüneyt Çakir has enjoyed a rapid rise up the ladder since his UEFA debut as the fourth official in the UEFA Champions League first qualifying round game between Skonto FC and Sliema Wanderers FC in July 2003.

• Took charge of two matches at the 2007 UEFA European Under-19 Championship in Austria and was also the referee for two UEFA EURO 2008 qualifying fixtures.

• Çakir, who lives with his wife in Istanbul and works in insurance, made his refereeing debut in the UEFA Cup proper in 2008/09, taking charge of two games including the group stage fixture between FC Twente and FC Schalke 04 in December 2008.

• He has been in the middle for more than 100 matches in the Turkish Süper Lig and was selected for the U21 finals in Sweden in 2009, taking charge of three games including England's penalty shoot-out win against the hosts in the semi-finals.

• Oversaw Fulham's second-leg win against Hamburger SV in the 2009/10 UEFA Europa League semi-finals, one of seven matches he refereed in total in the competition that season.

Posted by Ramzi on 05:48. Filed under Barcelona, Champions League, coverage, Football, Ramzi, Rubin Kazan . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0