Guide to Wednesday's Champions League fixtures

25 October 2023 2649
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The French champions' plodding start to the campaign has been more enjoyable in their two most recent Ligue 1 encounters, putting three past Rennes and Strasbourg in commanding wins. Despite those victories, PSG remain third in the league table, sitting behind the impressive Nice and Monaco.

Milan have the potential to cause PSG plenty of problems despite the fact that they are yet to score a goal in Europe this season. Two draws arguably should have been two wins, while a weekend defeat to Juventus won't have done confidence much good ahead of a crunch clash in Paris.

In what appears one of the more easy Champions League groups to predict, RB Leipzig play host to Serbian side Red Star on Wednesday evening. Both of the German side's European matches have finished 3-1 in Group G - an opening game victory against Young Boys and a recent defeat to Man City.

Marco Rose's side have been in largely strong form this season so far, getting a first win in four against Darmstadt at the weekend. A brace for Lois Openda and a goal for Emil Forsberg claimed all three points, moving Leipzig five points off table-topping Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga.

Red Star needed an 88th-minute equaliser from Osman Bukari to grab a hard-fought point at home to Young Boys on matchday two, having suffered defeat to Man City in their opener. The Ghanaian attacker now has two goals in Europe this season, but will be missing for the trip to Germany.

All four matches in Group G have contained exactly four goals so far and you wouldn't bet against Man City scoring as many when they play Young Boys on Wednesday. The champions have beaten Leipzig and Red Star 3-1 each and are yet to get out of second gear in Europe.

Erling Haaland is still looking for his first Champions League goal of the season having now failed to score in five straight European matches, while Man City are looking to extend their unbeaten run on the continent to 17 games.

Young Boys earned a famous victory over Manchester United at the Wankdorf Stadium two seasons ago, but one would imagine that lightning will not strike twice when their city rivals travel to Bern.

It's been a baptism of fire for Royal Antwerp in their debut Champions League campaign, starting with a 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Barcelona on matchday one. The Belgian champions then followed that up with a devastating 3-2 home defeat to Shakhtar, throwing away a two-goal lead and missing a 98th-minute penalty to level the scores.

Porto made a much stronger start than Wednesday's opponents, beating Shakhtar 3-1 at the Estadio do Drago before an unfortunate and narrow 1-0 defeat to Barca. The 2004 Champions League winners will be favourites for their trip to Antwerp, with the hosts knowing they need a victory to keep their slim qualification hopes alive.

 


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