Once more all eyes will be on Group A and another instalment of the Barcelona and Chelsea saga.
The London side will feel super confident travelling to the Camp Nou for Matchday 4 after their win at Stamford Bridge. It is amazing what a couple of good results will do for morale and suddenly all the problems with Petr Cech have drifted into the background. This will be another cracking occasion and the atmosphere will be extremely hostile for Mourinho and his players. However, the Portuguese coach thrives on these situations, and so do his players, and Tuesday will be no different.
The big surprise from the first match was that there was very little controversy before, during or after it. That could easily change this week. Mourinho worked at Barcelona as an interpreter alongside Bobby Robson but the home fans have taken a firm dislike to him after the recent series of matches between the two clubs. Mourinho would dearly love to win in Spain and it is certainly not be beyond his team. They are firmly in charge of the group with a 5-point cushion on Barca, and Bremen, and a draw would bring them to the 10-point figure. That is normally good enough to put a team into the first knock-out round.
I don’t think Chelsea will play for a draw but they would be thrilled to leave Spain with one point. Bremen are not out of the hunt at all and they should beat Levski Sofia away from home. That would put the Germans in a very strong position and if Barcelona drop points at home, they would end the day third in Group A. Barcelona were off-colour last weekend when they lost to Real Madrid but they will lift things considerably for Tuesday night. It will be a fantastic game and a draw could well be the final result.
Liverpool are also in action on Tuesday as they bid to also hit that 10-point mark. The 2005 winners were not impressive when they won in Bordeaux but the important thing was that they did record a victory away from home. It had been a day short of a year since they last won on the road in the Champions League and they will beat a poor Bordeaux side at Anfield. The Frenchmen were simply terrible in the first match and have still to score a goal in the competition after three attempts. It will be very interesting to see where Benitez plays Steven Gerrard in his ever-changing team. There has been loads of speculation about Gerrard in recent weeks and that will be the case again on Tuesday. PSV are level on points with Liverpool and they will be favoured to beat Galatasaray at home so Liverpool will have to win to keep up with the Dutch side who have still to come to England.
Manchester United, Celtic and Arsenal are all in action on Wednesday.
Celtic are in the perfect position to get out of a Champions League group for the very first time. They are three points behind Manchester United at the halfway stage and have a cushion of five points on Benfica and Copenhagen. Celtic were comfortable winners against Benfica at Celtic Park two weeks ago and it would not surprise me at all if they won in Lisbon. Benfica had a good spell just before half-time in the first match but they fell away badly in the second. Their morale and confidence will be low and even though their coach has promised a different result on Wednesday, I would fancy Celtic to get at least a draw from this one.
Manchester United are top of the group with three wins out of three. It has been straight-forward for them so far and the problems of 12 months ago are long forgotten. They head to Denmark to play the weakest team in the section and should beat Copenhagen for the second time in a fortnight. The Danes could have lost by more than three at Old Trafford and they will have to play extremely well to get a result. A point may be their most achievable target but expect Manchester United to push hard for the victory. The 1999 champions finished last in their group a year ago and Ferguson will be keen to guarantee qualification for the second round as quickly as possible.
Arsenal were stunned by their defeat in Russia against CSKA Moscow and Thierry Henry will be keen to wipe out the memory of that disallowed goal. Wenger and his captain were furious that it had been disallowed and that could be very bad news for the Russians. This has been a very interesting group so far with Arsenal a point behind CSKA and Porto back in third. A win for Arsenal would put them back on top of Group G and I would strongly fancy them to do just that at home on Wednesday.
Darragh Maloney's Champions League Preview
