By DPA
Hamburg : German giants Bayern Munich are one of four former European champions aiming to reach the UEFA Cup group stage in first-round action Thursday night.
The four-time European champions, bitterly disappointed at missing out on UEFA Champions League qualification, are back in a competition they last played as title-holders in the 1996-97 season.
The Bundesliga league leaders face Portuguese side Belenenses in one of 38 first-leg matches being played Thursday.
The 2001 Champions League winners hope to see a quick investment on the 70 million euros or so spent on the like of strikers Luca Toni and Miroslav Klose or midfielder Franck Ribery.
However coach Ottmar Hitzfeld will be without Klose who is serving a ban for a dismissal while playing for Werder Bremen in last season’s UEFA Cup semi-final elimination at the hands of Espanyol.
Toni is also uncertain as he attempts to regain full fitness following a thigh injury.
Goalkeeper Oliver Kahn, who won the 1996 UEFA Cup trophy in his first season with Bayern, has warned that Bayern won’t find it easy in the competition.
“I want to win the trophy no question and we have all the right ingredients to do so, but the UEFA Cup should not be underestimated,” he told Germany’s Sport Bild weekly.
“You’ve got teams who are playing at the top of all of Europe’s top leagues competing. You really have to be on your guard.”
Of the three other former European champions in the competition, Bundesliga rivals SV Hamburg – the 1983 European champions – took a step towards the next round with a 1-0 victory at Bulgaria’s Litex Lovech Tuesday night.
Meanwhile Ajax Amsterdam, who have four European Cup titles, are at Dinamo Zagreb, who like the Dutch giants were among the 16 losing sides in the Champions League third qualifying round.
Of the other former European champions in action, 1991 winners Red Star Belgrade are at Poland’s Groclin Grodzisk Wielkopolski.
Along with Bayern and Ajax, four other former UEFA Cup champions are also playing, including 1988 winners Bayer Leverkusen who entertain Portugal’s Uniao Leiria.
England’s Tottenham Hotspur – winners in 1972 and 1984 – host Cyprus outfit Anorthosis Famagusta.
Spurs, who will be hoping to improve on last season’s showing when they reached the quarter-finals to be eliminated by eventual winners Sevilla, are one of four English sides in the competition, along with Blackburn Rovers, Everton and Bolton Wanderers.
Anderlecht, who won the cup in 1983, are at home to Rapid Vienna, while 2000 winners Galatasaray, the only Turkish club to win a European trophy, travel to Switzerland’s FC Sion.
Among Italian hopes are Fiorentina, back in Europe after six years, who are at Dutch side Groningen; Sampdoria, home to Aaalborg; and Empoli who make their European debut against Zurich.
The second leg matches will be played after a fortnight with the group stage draw Oct 9. Forty clubs will be drawn into eight groups of five teams, with the three top teams from each group then progressing to the knockout rounds.