Chelsea take on Red Bull Salzburg in Graham Potter‘s first match
Chelsea take on Red Bull Salzburg in Group E of the Champions League on Wednesday, with the Blues looking to win Graham Potter‘s first match in charge of the club. It has been a tumultuous week for Chelsea, who moved to sack Thomas Tuchel after their 1-0 defeat away to Dinamo Zagreb last Tuesday, before replacing him little more than 24 hours later with former Brighton & Hove Albion manager Graham Potter on a five-year deal.
Having lavished around £250m on several new signings during his first summer transfer window at the club, new owner Boehly does not lack ambition and he will hope Potter can work his magic on a talented group of players.
Wednesday’s visit of Salzburg will be Potter’s first ever Champions League match, illustrating how quickly he must adapt to the step up in class at his new environment. We expect Chelsea to be hugely motivated to win this match under their new manager, with Potter’s extra time on the training ground likely to have helped their cause of doing so.
The visitors are missing several key players through injury, especially in defence, and they may struggle to keep their opponents at bay as a result.
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Haaland faces old club as Man City host Dortmund
Manchester City and Borussia Dortmund will both endeavour to continue their perfect starts to the 2022-23 Champions League at the Etihad Stadium. Erling Braut Haaland‘s goalscoring capabilities in the Premier League may have been called into question before his arrival at the Etihad Stadium – such concerns have since been quashed – but his penchant for Champions League heroics had already been firmly established.
City have now successfully traversed their first seven games of the season unbeaten in all competitions and have scored at least three goals in each of their four home encounters.
Without their first-choice goalkeeper and a raft of other players who could potentially make a difference, Dortmund are surely looking at back-to-back away defeats versus the well-rested Premier League champions. The two clubs’ relationship off the pitch is as strong as ever, but Terzic’s side will likely travel back to Germany reflecting on their first Champions League loss of the season, as Haaland and co are showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon. Credit: sportsmole.co.uk
Inconsistent Juventus welcome Benfica in Group H
Amid a run of just one win from six matches, Juventus welcome Champions League Group H rivals Benfica to Turin on today. While the Bianconeri were beaten by Paris Saint-Germain on the opening night – and subsequently found themselves held at home in a controversial Serie A contest – their visitors have won every one of their games this season and sit top of the Primeira Liga table.
Traditionally, though, Juventus have struggled in their meetings with Benfica down the years: winning once and losing four times in six previous matches. The most recent encounter between the clubs came in the 2014 Europa League semi-finals, where the Portuguese side won 2-1 on aggregate, following a goalless draw in Turin.
Though still early in the process, their encounters with Juventus are likely to prove decisive in that regard.
Another turgid display from Juventus at the weekend suggests that any improvement will have to wait until their top talents return to the squad, so they will do well to grind out a draw against the high-flying Eagles. The hosts are unlikely to take the game to their visitors either, and may have to settle for a point.
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Real Madrid will be bidding to make it eight straight wins in all competitions at the start of the season when they continue their Champions League campaign against RB Leipzig.
Los Blancos, who are the holders of the European Cup, opened their Group F season with a 3-0 victory at Celtic last week, while Leipzig started with a surprise 4-1 home defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk.
Los Blancos, who have incredibly now lifted the European Cup on 14 occasions, will take on Atletico Madrid in the Madrid derby this weekend, but Ancelotti’s full focus will be on this game, as the capital outfit look to put six points on the board in Group F.
Two disastrous results – a 4-0 loss to Eintracht Frankfurt followed by a 4-1 defeat by Shakhtar – led to Domenico Tedesco losing his job as Leipzig head coach earlier this month. The Red Bulls are still down in 10th position in the Bundesliga table, though, and they have work to do in the Champions League following their shock 4-1 home reverse to Shakhtar last week.
Leipzig’s impressive victory over Dortmund at the weekend would certainly have boosted confidence in the camp, but it is so difficult to back against Real Madrid at the moment. This could end up being a tricky affair for the European champions, but we are still expecting them to navigate their way to another three points.
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