A look at what’s happening in the Champions League on Wednesday:
GROUP A
Rangers will host Napoli in a game pushed back from Tuesday because of logistical issues arising from the death of Queen Elizabeth II. UEFA has said Napoli fans will not be allowed to attend the game in Glasgow. Rangers, back in the Champions League after a 12-year absence, opened the group with a 4-0 loss at Ajax. Napoli beat Liverpool 4-1. On Tuesday, Liverpool beat Ajax 2-1.
GROUP E
Graham Potter takes charge of his first match as Chelsea manager when Salzburg visits Stamford Bridge. Potter left Brighton and replaced Thomas Tuchel as manager on Thursday before Chelsea’s English Premier League game at Fulham on Saturday was called off following the death of the queen. The pressure is immediately on Potter, with Chelsea having opened the group with a 1-0 loss at Dinamo Zagreb. Tuchel was fired two days later. Salzburg started with a 1-1 home draw with AC Milan, which hosts Dinamo for their second game.
GROUP F
Defending champion Real Madrid will remain without the injured Karim Benzema when it hosts Leipzig. The striker is still recovering from a tendon injury sustained in Madrid’s 3-0 win at Celtic in the opener last week. Coach Carlos Ancelotti used Rodrygo and Eden Hazard playing alongside Vinícius Júnior in attack in the team’s win against Mallorca in the Spanish league last weekend. Madrid has a perfect record to start the season, with seven victories. In the other match, Shakhtar Donetsk plays its first “home” game in the group in Warsaw when Celtic visits the Polish city. The Ukrainian team has played in exile eight for years because of Russian aggression.
GROUP G
Erling Haaland is getting a quick reunion with Borussia Dortmund. The striker left Dortmund in the offseason to join Manchester City, the team he supported as a child after being born in England, and he has started the Premier League in explosive fashion, scoring 10 goals in six games. Then, in his first Champions League game for City, Haaland scored twice in a 4-0 win at Sevilla last week to make it 25 goals in 20 games in the competition. Dortmund, which beat FC Copenhagen 3-0 to open the group, had Haaland in its team when losing 2-1 at City in the Champions League quarterfinals in 2021. Both Copenhagen and Sevilla look to rebound when they meet in Denmark.
GROUP H
Neymar and Kylian Mbappe look to continue their sparkling form as unbeaten Paris Saint-Germain travels to play Israeli club Maccabi Haifa. Mbappe scored two sharp volleys in PSG’s opening win against Juventus, while Neymar has netted a French league-high eight goals — one more than Mbappe. But PSG coach Christophe Galtier will be without central defender Presnel Kimpembe, who is out for at least six weeks with a hamstring injury. Backup goalkeeper Keylor Navas will sit out the match with lower back pain. Benfica, which leads the group on goal difference, is off to a great start this season and will be going for its 12th straight victory overall when it travels to Juventus in the other game.
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