Another busy night lies ahead in Europe and in the English Football League, with much attention destined to be focused on Paris, scene in recent days of violence and looting but host tonight of one of the prestige fixtures of the group stage as the teams sitting first and second in the nascent table after two fixtures, five-time champions Barcelona and double reigning champions Paris Saint Germain, meet at the Parc des Princes. Manchester City, meanwhile, may be without Erling Haaland for the visit of AEK Athens, who are promising not to go all-out defensive for a trip to a side Marko Nikolic, the Greek side’s Serbian coach, described as “one of the best teams in the world of football”. We have to stick to the challenge.
We want to do it with our game. We can be a decent opponent for everybody. I have a lot of confidence in our team.” You can get a decent idea of how much any kind of good result would mean to AEK by the scenes of jubilatory bedlam that greeted yesterday’s 1-1 draw in the Uefa Youth League.
Beyond the best two teams in the tournament so far tonight also sees the worst, in the shape of Slovan Bratislava, who visit Roma. Slovan, who last failed to win the Slovakian title in 2018, are currently fourth in their domestic league but their position at the bottom of this table is largely down to them having had the misfortune to come up against PSG, who thumped them 6-1, a goal difference hit from which they are yet to recover. Champions League (8pm unless otherwise indicated) Fenerbahce v Slavia Prague (5.45pm) Liverpool v Villarreal Manchester City v AEK Athens Napoli v Bodo/Glimt Paris Saint-Germain v Barcelona Porto v PSV Roma v Slovan Bratislava Sabah v Borussia Dortmund (5.45pm) Stuttgart v Atletico Madrid Also!
In the Championship (Football League fixtures 7.45pm unless otherwise indicated) Wolverhampton Wanderers v Portsmouth And in League One AFC Wimbledon v Mansfield Blackpool v MK Dons Bromley v Leicester Burton v Bradford Cambridge v Wycombe Doncaster v Stockport Huddersfield v Peterborough Luton v Barnsley Notts County v Sheff Wed Oxford v Wigan Stevenage v Plymouth League Two Barnet v Swindon Bristol Rovers v Salford Cheltenham v Fleetwood Chesterfield v Colchester Crawley v Shrewsbury Exeter v Crewe Gillingham v Port Vale (8pm) Northampton v Tranmere Rochdale v Grimsby Rotherham v Newport Walsall v Oldham York v Accrington
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