City visit CSKA, Guardiola returns to Rome

Manchester City continue their search for a first UEFA Champions League win this season when they face CSKA Moscow on Tuesday, while Chelsea, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain are among the sides in action elsewhere.

 Group E

CSKA MOSCOW V MANCHESTER CITY

After taking just one point from their opening two matches, Premier League champions City go to Russia to face CSKA still looking for their first win. Manuel Pellegrini’s men are fresh from a 4-1 win against Tottenham Hotspur at the weekend thanks to four Sergio Aguero goals, although a thigh injury suffered by Frank Lampard in that game means he is set to miss the trip.

The in-form Aguero also scored twice when City won 2-1 against the same opponents at the Arena Khimki in last season’s competition, although that match was overshadowed by racist taunts from home supporters aimed at City’s Yaya Toure. More misbehavior  from CSKA fans in their defeat at Roma last month saw them punished by UEFA and this game will be played behind closed doors as a result, something that is likely to work against the home side, who beat Kuban Krasnodar 6-0 in the Russian Premier League on Saturday.

ROMA V BAYERN MUNICH

The match at the Stadio Olimpico has the makings of being the standout fixture on Tuesday evening. Pep Guardiola takes his Bayern side to the stadium where he led Barcelona to victory in the Champions League final in 2009, and the German champions will be looking to extend their unbeaten start to the season. They have won both games in Group E so far and have gone eight matches without conceding a goal in all competitions.

Bayern defender Mehdi Benatia could come up against the club he left in the summer, and Roma have enjoyed a superb start to the campaign since selling the Moroccan. The Giallorossi have taken four points from a possible six so far and drew 1-1 at Manchester City in their last outing. Domestically, a 3-0 win over Chievo on Saturday was their sixth in seven matches in Serie A.

Group F

BARCELONA V Ajax

These clubs are meeting for the second consecutive season in the Champions League, with Barcelona hoping for a repeat of their 4-0 win over Ajax at the Camp Nou in September last year. The Catalans have won seven out of eight games in La Liga this season and are yet to concede a goal domestically, but they lost 3-2 at PSG in their last Group F outing and may have one eye on Saturday’s trip to face eternal rivals Real Madrid.

Ajax drew 1-1 at APOEL three weeks ago and have not won any of their last eight away matches in the Champions League. The Amsterdam club, whose coach Frank de Boer was a team-mate of opposite number Luis Enrique at Barcelona over a decade ago, are unbeaten in eight games but drew 1-1 at Twente in the Eredivisie on Saturday. The visitors will perhaps be relieved that this will be the last game of former Ajax star Luis Suarez’s suspension for biting Giorgio Chiellini at the 2014 FIFA World Cup™.

Group G

SCHALKE 04 V SPORTING

Roberto Di Matteo, who won the Champions League with Chelsea as coach in 2012, leads his new club Schalke in the competition for the first time. The Italian got off to a winning start with the Gelsenkirchen side, leading them to a 2-0 win over Hertha Berlin in the Bundesliga on Saturday. And now they could desperately do with another victory after drawing their opening two matches in Group G.

Sporting head to Germany still chasing their first win in the section. The Lions have only been beaten once this season – their 1-0 home loss to Chelsea on match day two – and are fresh from a 3-1 win at FC Porto in the third round of the Portuguese Cup at the weekend.

Chelsea V MARIBOR

Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has said that striker Diego Costa will miss the visit of Slovenian champions Maribor to Stamford Bridge with the hamstring problem that kept him out of the 2-1 win at Crystal Palace at the weekend. However, even without the prolific Spanish international, the Premier League leaders should be far too strong for their visitors.

The London club have recorded nine wins and two draws in 11 games this season, although they were held 1-1 by Schalke in their only previous home outing in Group G. Maribor, who lost 3-1 at Wigan Athletic in the UEFA Europa League last season, have held both Sporting and Schalke so far but warmed up for the trip by losing 2-1 at home to Celje on Saturday, defender Aleksander Rajcevic scoring two own goals.

Group H

BATE BORISOV V SHAKHTAR DONETSK

This encounter at the Borisov Arena is likely to be pivotal to both teams’ chances of progressing from Group H, with BATE second on three points from two games and Shakhtar a point behind. BATE, who have won eight consecutive Belarusian titles, are unbeaten at their recently-opened new stadium. Indeed, they have not lost at home in more than a year. Shakhtar are not quite the fearsome proposition they once were, but they come into this game off the back of a 6-2 win against Volyn Lutsk in their domestic league on Friday.

PORTO V ATHLETIC BILBAO

Athletic make the short trip to northern Portugal in urgent need of a positive result after taking just one point from their opening two matches. The Basque side have gone eight matches without a win in all competitions but coach Ernesto Valverde believes they are on the right road after drawing 1-1 with Celta Vigo in La Liga on Saturday. And they will hope that history repeats itself, having won 2-1 away to Porto in their first ever European match in the European Cup preliminary round in 1956. Porto were knocked out of the Portuguese Cup by Sporting at the weekend in what was a first defeat of the season for Julen Lopetegui’s impressive side.

Source:FIFA

M.D