Both Chelsea and Liverpool can pretty much assure themselves of a place in the Champions League knockout stages today with victories over AS Roma and Atletico Madrid respectively.
Victory for Chelsea would put them on 10 points and even were Bordeaux to beat Romanian side Cluj it would need the latter side to win their final two matches and Chelsea lose both theirs for the Londoners to miss out.
Liverpool need a win at Anfield, combined with a PSV Eindhoven loss to Marseille, which would guarantee the top-two finish needed to reach the last 16.
Chelsea look to have the easier of the tasks given Roma’s appalling form at the moment, which has seen them lose six of their first nine Serie A matches and their last four.
The Italians have been hiding away in a hotel for nearly a week which one could interpret as resembling a siege like mentality.
Chelsea striker Nicolas Anelka has got the nod for the Roma clash ahead of fit-again Ivory Coast star Didier Drogba.
“Drogba is back but my decision against Roma is easy,” said manager Luiz Felipe Scolari.
“Anelka is in better condition so he plays,” added the Brazilian, who will have to do without the injured Ashley Cole.
Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez looks set to throw Spanish marksman Fernado Torres into the fray against his former side after he missed their first clash because of injury.
The hosts will be especially wary of Portuguese international Simao, who has made a habit of scoring against them once for Benfica and then in their first match a fortnight ago.
In contrast to their cross channel neighbors the two French sides in action are in desperate need of victories to keep their hopes of qualifying alive.
Marseille, who are pointless, host PSV on the back of a morale boosting 3-1 win over St Etienne at the weekend and certainly if they play as they did in the opening match against Liverpool then they can think of claiming all three points.
Bordeaux, though, lost to Nancy in the league and coach Laurent Blanc has made it clear to his side what he expects of them when they travel to Cluj — another win over the Romanians.
“The defeat to Nancy was a very negative thing for us,” confessed the former France central defender. “Now we have to rebound in the Champions League ... that is imperative.”
Bayer 04 Leverkusen go into today’s match at TSG 1899 Hoffenheim stung from their first league defeat in 16 months. Leverkusen were beaten 3-2 at home by RB Leipzig before the international break, the first loss since May last year for the reigning league and cup champions. While any defeat, particularly against a likely title rival, would have disappointed coach Xabi Alonso, the way in which it happened would be most concerning. Just as they did in the Supercup against VfB Stuttgart and in the league opener to Borussia Moenchengladbach, Leverkusen scored first, but were pegged back. However, while Leverkusen rallied late to
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