Torino embark on their first European campaign for more than 20 years and are drawn into a group of four teams with which they have little history and from which they will be expected to qualify.
As Copenhagen, Club Brugge and HJK look forward to visiting the Stadio Olimpico, what can the Granata expect from each of their Group B opponents when they meet?
FC Copenhagen (Danish Superliga Runners-up)
Interestingly, Copenhagen have never met Torino before.
Formed only 22 years ago, Copenhagen have enjoyed an unbelievably successful period in the Danish League, winning ten league titles in their short existence and finishing as runners-up on a further five occasions. This has led to a number of Champions League campaigns that, more often than not, end in either early elimination or dropping into the Europa League as happened this season after a one-sided tie with Bayer Leverkusen.
Stale Solbakken has returned to the Telia Parken after his unsuccessful stint in England but could only lead the side to a second place finish last season. Another returning hero is Andreas Cornelius, who represented a huge sale for the club when he left for Cardiff City at the start of last season, but was brought back in for a small undisclosed fee, and has hit the ground running, and will surely represent the biggest threat to Toro keeper Daniele Padelli’s goal.
Other big money signings to Solbakken’s squad include Utrecht forward Steve de Ridder and Djurgarden’s Ghanaian midfielder Daniel Adartey.
Club Brugge (Belgian Jupiter Pro League, Third)
13 time Belgian Champions Club Brugge found their way into the Europa League after beating Grasshoppers 3-1 on aggregate following a 2-0 win in Zurich. Coached by former international goalkeeper Michel Preud’homme, the Blauw-Zwart are attempting to begin the chain of success they enjoyed in the 1970s – a time when Torino themselves were last competing regularly in Europe.
With Chilean striker Nicolas Castillo leading the goal-charts already, the 1977/78 European Cup Finalists look to have a more varied attack than last season where Tom De Sutter hit 12 goals, though his contribution was overshadowed by Maxime Lestienne who not only got 11 goals of his own, but also assisted 13 strikes. The Israeli midfielder Lior Rafaelov is another danger man coming from midfield which the Granata need to keep a close eye on.
Torino have met Club Brugge before, in a friendly in August 2007, coming from behind to win 2-1 in a game attended by legend Enzo Scifo, who was at that stage general manager of Club Brugge.
Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (Finnish Veikkausliiga Champions)
While Helsingin Jalkapalloklubi (HJK) may well be seen as the pushovers of the group, they have won 26 Finnish titles including the previous five and no team qualifies for the Europa League by mistake – having beaten Rapid Vienna 5-4 in one of the more exciting ties in the playoff round, the Finns have showed that they have ability that isn’t taken for granted from Veikkausliga teams.
In truth, the current HJK squad has some well-known faces in Finnish football – the likes of Mikael Forssell, formerly of Chelsea, and Teemu Tainio, who spent some seasons with Tottenham Hotspur, are both amongst their number while Gambian striker Demba Savage is joint top scorer, and bagged the goal in Vienna that put his side into the group stages.
While Torino have never faced a Finnish side before, it is HJK that represent their best chances of victory in this campaign – should Giampiero Ventura’s side win those two games, it will likely be a straight mini-league between the other three sides. It is not the easiest group but, especially with a couple of the Russian sides hiding out in Pot 4, it could have been a lot, lot worse.
