Pressure on City and Chelsea

Manchester City will look to bounce back from an opening defeat at Bayern Munich when it hosts Roma in the Champions League Tuesday.

September 29, 2014






PARIS — Manchester City will look to bounce back from an opening defeat at Bayern Munich when it hosts Roma in the Champions League Tuesday, as Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea goes to Lisbon.



Group E



CSKA Moscow vs. Bayern Munich: Bayern beat CSKA home and away in the group stage of last season’s Champions League and the Russian champion’s hopes of getting a result this time will not be helped by the fact the match will be played behind closed doors at the Arena Khimki.



CSKA is being punished by UEFA for the bad behavior of its fans during a group stage match last season.



The visitors have considerable selection problems just now, with Franck Ribery, Javi Martinez and Thiago Alcantara among those on the sidelines and Jerome Boateng doubtful, but it is yet to lose this season and has not even conceded a goal in its last five outings.



Manchester City vs. Roma: After conceding late to go down 1-0 to Bayern in its group opener, the visit of Roma is already a must-win game for Manuel Pellegrini’s English champion. Manchester City has scored 11 goals in winning its last two matches, but a meeting with a Roma side which has won all five Serie A games so far and thumped CSKA Moscow 5-1 two weeks ago promises to be a stiff test.



Group F



APOEL vs. Ajax: Cypriot champion APOEL earned plenty of plaudits for its performance in losing 1-0 to Barcelona at the Camp Nou in its group opener, but if it is to stand any prospect of progressing it will need to beat Ajax in Nicosia.



Ajax held Paris Saint-Germain to a 1-1 draw last time out and Frank de Boer’s side heads to the Mediterranean island fresh from a 5-2 victory at NAC Breda at the weekend, a game in which Kolbeinn Sigthórsson scored a hat trick.



PSG vs. Barcelona: The Parc des Princes will be the scene for the heavyweight showdown of the French champion and Luis Enrique’s Barcelona.



The clubs clashed in the quarterfinals 18 months ago, when Paris held its more illustrious opponents in both legs but lost on away goals. PSG is desperate to win the most prestigious trophy in European football, but it has had a cumbersome start to the season and has drawn four of its last five matches.



In contrast, Barcelona has enjoyed an excellent start to the campaign and is still to concede a goal never mind lose a game. The PSG side is missing Thiago Silva, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.



Group G



Schalke 04 vs. Maribor: Schalke drew at Chelsea on matchday one, and should fancy its chances of reaching the last 16 from Group G as it prepares to host Slovenian champion Maribor in Gelsenkirchen.



Jens Keller’s side is also fresh from beating bitter rival Borussia Dortmund 2-1 in the Ruhr derby Saturday, confirming its upturn in form after a slow start to the campaign.



Sporting vs. Chelsea: Chelsea is yet to lose this season, although while Jose Mourinho’s side has been in imperious form in the Premier League, it stuttered to a 1-1 draw against Schalke in its Group G opener. That puts more pressure on it to win at the Estadio Jose Alvalade in Lisbon, where Chelsea will hope to be able to call upon top scorer Diego Costa, who has a nagging hamstring problem.



Sporting is unbeaten this season but Marco Silva’s side has drawn four of its last five games.



Group H



BATE Borisov vs. Athletic Bilbao: Athletic will be eager to get back to winning ways when it becomes the first visitor to BATE’s new Borisov Arena in a Champions League group game.



Sixteen years on from its last appearance at this stage of the competition, Athletic kicked off in Group H by drawing 0-0 with Shakhtar Donetsk two weeks ago.



BATE may dominate in Belarus but its difficulties in adapting to this level were laid bare in a 6-0 trouncing at the hands of Porto on matchday one.



Shakhtar Donetsk vs. FC Porto: Shakhtar’s status as one of the emerging powers in the European game has been diminished by the bloody conflict that continues to rage around their home in Donetsk in eastern Ukraine.



Its state-of-the-art Donbass Arena was last month damaged by shell fire and it is now forced to host Porto in Lviv, over 1,000km away in the west of the country.



Despite the disruption, Mircea Lucescu’s side lies second in its domestic league and drew 0-0 at Athletic Bilbao two weeks ago.



However, it will face a stern test from Porto, whose unbeaten start to the campaign includes a 6-0 win against BATE. Julen Lopetegui’s side will be without the injured Ricardo Quaresma and Casemiro for the trip east. — Agencies


September 29, 2014
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