Sport

LONDON (AP):

Just how far Liverpool's fortunes have sunk in the last year will be apparent when their Europa League campaign begins today with a trip to Macedonia in the third qualifying round.

It's a journey Liverpool has described as "a trip into the unknown."

Not only is Rabotnicki; a club from Skopje that Liverpool describes on their website as "minnows", an unknown opponent for the five-time European winners, but never before have the Reds had to begin a campaign in Europe's second-tier knockout competition so early.

A victory over two legs won't even guarantee a spot in the Europa League group stage, with the winning team then forced to negotiate a play-off next month.

Financially troubled Liverpool are lucky to be competing in Europe this season. The 2009 Premier League runners-up slumped to seventh last season, and only qualified because FA Cup finalist Portsmouth were in a worse financial predicament and fell foul of UEFA regulations.

"There's been a lot of negativity and it's been like that for a while," Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher said. "It's a rebuilding process again, and hopefully we can get ourselves right up there (again)."

The same goes for two-time European champions Juventus. After finishing seventh in Serie A, Juventus is also in action today, facing Irish side Shamrock Rovers.

"It will be a year of sacrifice," Juventus defender Giorgio Chiellini said. "We must start from zero and reconstruct the base, but this is normal after what happened last year."

Like Liverpool, which have hired Roy Hodgson as manager, Juventus are embarking on their European campaign with a new boss at the helm: Luigi Del Neri.

Rebuild

Like Liverpool, Juventus aren't thinking about winning the league this season, instead prioritising returning to the Champions League in 2011.

"The fact that we are not taking part in it (Champions League) this season really bothers us," Chiellini said. "We must rebuild the group and the team and this will happen only one match at a time, and one training session after another. We are learning what the coach wants, but we still have a long way to go, and he was the first to tell us in a more direct manner."

"Rome was not built in a day, we've got that in mind, but the important thing for the fans to know is that we will be working towards the targets they have set for the club."

There are 33 other Europa League qualifying third-round matches this week, as well as Champions League qualifiers.