Champions League

Barcelona are on the brink of Champions League elimination and Bayern Munich can seal their fate on Wednesday night. Barca’s faint hopes of reaching the last 16 may be over by the time they take to the field, depending on the result in the earlier game between Inter Milan and Viktoria Plzen.

Napoli could heap more misery on mis-firing Rangers on Wednesday night. Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s side, off the pace in the Scottish Premiership, were beaten 3-0 by the Serie A side last month at Ibrox and have lost all four games in the group stage so far.

Celtic cannot qualify for the knockout stage of the Champions League but a Europa League place is still up for grabs in their final two matches. The 2-0 defeat against RB Leipzig two weeks ago left bottom of Group F with one point from four matches and with no chance of making second place following Shakhtar Donetsk’s draw against Real Madrid in Warsaw.

Borussia Dortmund will look to join Manchester City in the knockout stages of the Champions League as they prepare to welcome Erling Haaland back to BVB Stadion Dortmund. The Bundesliga side have a five-point cushion over Sevilla heading into matchday five while City advanced after three successive wins and a draw.

RB Salzburg and Chelsea both have a chance of progressing to the Champions League round of 16 when they meet in Austria on matchday five. Chelsea lead Group E by a point over Salzburg following back-to-back wins over AC Milan while the Austrians are the only unbeaten side in the group, drawing three of their four matches.

Liverpool had little trouble accounting for Rangers at Anfield despite not hitting top gear and can confirm their superiority in Glasgow. However, the Reds have generally looked shaky at the back this term and the hosts will hope to at least grab a first Champions League goal.

Tottenham looked the better team during a goalless stalemate with Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany and are fancied to prevail on home turf. Both sides have four points from three games in Group D, two behind leaders Sporting Lisbon and one ahead of Marseille.

The pressure is on Barcelona to overturn last week’s 1-0 loss at Inter Milan as these teams fight it out behind Bayern Munich in Group C. The Catalan giants trail the Nerazzurri by three points at the halfway stage and must now take a positive approach to this Camp Nou clash.

Chelsea thumped AC Milan 3-0 at Stamford Bridge but are expected to face a stiffer test in the return fixture at the San Siro. The Blues have not been as convincing on the road this season and the Rossoneri will be buoyed by Saturday’s Serie A win over Juventus here.

Man City put Copenhagen to the sword when prevailing 5-0 last week and it is hard to envisage a much different outcome in Denmark. Pep Guardiola may make changes with one eye on Sunday’s clash with Liverpool but the Blues have the strength in depth to cope.

Celtic more than matched RB Leipzig for an hour in Germany and could be a value bet to prevail in their reverse fixture. With Real Madrid runaway leaders in Group F, the Hoops still have everything to play for, despite only picking up one point from three games.

Inter Milan and Bayern Munich will kick off with an interesting clash in Group C, which also features Barcelona. The hosts will set out to be hard to beat, but Bayern have only dropped two points from their last 18 pool games and are on a 28-match unbeaten run at this stage!

PSG resume their quest for a first Champions League triumph by entertaining Juventus and look in better shape than the two-time winners. Kylian Mbappe, Lionel Messi and Neymar have all made a bright start to the season, whereas Juve have been rocked by some key injuries.

Rangers face arguably their biggest match of the season less than a month into the new campaign as they bid to reach the group stages of the Champions League in their play-off second leg at PSV Eindhoven.
Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s men have a tough task in his homeland after a 2-2 first-leg draw at Ibrox handed the initiative to the Dutch giants.