BERLIN: Manchester City can become the first English team to book a place in the knockout rounds of the Champions League when they visit Atalanta but title holders Liverpool have no room for error at home to Genk.
Pep Guardiola’s side top Group ‘C’ after winning their first three games and will go through with a Wednesday victory over a pointless Atalanta side they hammered 5-1 at home last time out.
Liverpool are second in Group ‘E’ before hosting Genk a day earlier. London duo Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur can also take little for granted as they welcome Ajax Amsterdam and visit Red Star Belgrade respectively.
Borussia Dortmund-Inter Milan and Zenit St Petersburg-RB Leipzig also look like key games in the race to the last 16.
City travel to Italy knowing they face a crucial visit to Premier League leaders Liverpool next weekend but their group position means they may consider rotating their squad.
“In general we have a lot of points and we face one team [Liverpool] who have 10 wins and one draw,” said Guardiola. “We are going to go to Italy and afterwards we got to Anfield and try to play a game.”
Dinamo Zagreb host Shakhtar Donetsk, with both teams on four points, in the other tie.
Liverpool, who lost in Naples, will stabilise if they defeat Genk as at least one of RB Salzburg and Napoli drop points from their meeting.
Tottenham visit Red Star Belgrade, who are one point behind them in Group ‘B’ despite losing 5-0 in London last time.
Bayern Munich top that group and host Olympiakos under the guidance of interim coach Hansi Flick having parted from Niko Kovac on Sunday.
Bayern also must look ahead, to a home showdown with Dortmund next week, but have more breathing space than Borussia.
Dortmund and Inter each trail Group ‘F’ leaders Barcelonas, who host Slavia Prague, by three points.
“We’re not yet fulfilling our full footballing potential,” Sebastian Kehl, Dortmund’s head of professional football told ZDF. But after beating VfL Wolfsburg to go second he said “you could sense the team’s desire to get back winning ways.”
Barca, without the injured Luis Suarez, are looking to bounce back from a third league away defeat of the season at the weekend.
“We don’t have an explanation for it,” said Antoine Griezmann after a 3-1 reverse at Levante. “But if you lose the way we did it means a lot of things are not right.”
Chelsea host Ajax in a showdown of the top two in Group ‘H’, set up by a 1-0 win in Amsterdam two weeks ago.
Valencia are likely to be without Francis Coquelin and Kevin Gameiro, and the suspended Mouctar Diakhaby, while Carlos Soler is doubtful for the visit of Lille.
Juventus and Atletico Madrid are both close to early qualification as they top Group ‘D’.
The Italian champions also lead Serie A before going to Lokomotiv Moscow on Wednesday but have not impressed in recent outings, struggling to get goals while learning the ropes under ex-Chelsea and Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri.
“At this moment there are no calculations to be made, only points to be made,” he said after a narrow 1-0 win against Torino.
Diego Simeone is still without Joao Felix, Stefan Savic and Jose Gimenez away to Bayer Leverkusen. Angel Correa looks set to start up front alongside Alvaro Morata with Diego Costa still out of sorts.
James Rodriguez and Gareth Bale are still out for Real Madrid, who host Galatasaray sitting second in Group ‘A’.
“We have to do more to put a run together but we are not playing that badly,” coach Zinedine Zidane said after a weekend draw at Real Betis.
Leaders Paris St Germain host Club Brugge in the other tie.
And in a tight Group ‘G’, leaders Leipzig on six points visit Zenit (four) while Olympique Lyonnais (four) welcome Benfica (three).
“Our link up play went really well and we took our chances when they came,” Leipzig’s Christopher Nkunku said after the club record 8-0 win over Mainz 05 on Saturday. “We want to take this form into our Champions League match on Tuesday.”
Published in Dawn, November 5th, 2019
