Football
Reuters 17y

PREVIEW-Soccer-Van der Vaart return a boost for Hamburg

By Kevin Fylan

BERLIN, Oct 31 - Rafael van der Vaart is ready to
make his first Champions League appearance for Hamburg SV
against Porto on Tuesday but the Dutchman's return is likely to
be too late to save the struggling German side.

Van der Vaart was the inspiration behind Hamburg's run to
third place in the Bundesliga last season.

He suffered a serious thigh injury in August and has been
sorely missed as Hamburg have lost all three of their matches in
Group G to date.

The last of those, a 4-1 defeat away to Porto, pretty much
ended Hamburg hopes of making the last 16 of the Champions
League.

They are not mathematically out of it, but realistically
their best hope would appear to be third place and a spot in the
UEFA Cup.

"The target is to finish second in the group or at least
third," Hamburg's Peruvian international striker Paolo Guerrero
said. "It's going to be tough but we'll give it everything."

Since Van der Vaart returned to the team, Hamburg have
managed a win and a draw to move out of the bottom three in the
Bundesliga.

Another win on Wednesday would take them to within a point
of third place with two games to play.

For Porto, the target will be another victory to take them
up to seven points from four games and put pressure on top two
CSKA Moscow and Arsenal, who meet in London.

"We know that if we win in Hamburg we have the way open to
reach the knockout phase of the competition," coach Jesualdo
Ferreira said.

Porto regained first place in the Portuguese Premier League
at the weekend thanks to a dramatic 3-2 win over Benfica.

The 2004 Champions League winners blew a two-goal lead in
the match with their arch-rivals but a Bruno Moraes header in
stoppage time saw them to victory.

They will be without Brazilian playmaker Anderson, who will
be out for up to three months with a calf injury suffered
against Benfica. He will be replaced by Raul Meireles.

Brazilian striker Adriano, winger Ibson and defender Pedro
Emanuel are still recovering from injury.

Probable teams:

Hamburg SV: 12-Sascha Kirschstein; 7-Mehdi Mahdavikia,
10-Vincent Kompany, 5-Joris Mathijsen, 3-Thimothee Atouba;
33-Benny Feilhaber, 15-Piotr Trochowski, 2-Juan Pablo Sorin,
23-Rafael van der Vaart; 17-Boubacar Sanogo, 9-Paolo Guerrero

Porto: 1-Helton; 13-Jorge Fucile, 3-Pepe, 14-Bruno Alves,
5-Marek Cech; 18-Paulo Assuncao, 8-Lucho Gonzales, 16-Raul
Meireles, 7-Ricardo Quaresma; 23-Helder Postiga, 9-Lisandro
Lopez.

Referee: Laurent Duhamel (France)

(additional reporting by Carlos Pontes in Lisbon)

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