Munich, November 1 (UNA): A look from the Associated Press on what’s happening in the Champions League on Tuesday:
Group A
Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp would like to have the opportunity to rest his key players after a grueling string of matches befell his injured side.
But Klopp will not do that against Napoli. Not with first place in the group – and not with Napoli “probably the best team in Europe at the moment”, according to Klopp.
“This is not a big rotation match,” said Klopp, whose side lost consecutive Premier League games but won four consecutive Champions League matches to advance to the last 16.
Napoli, who have achieved 13 consecutive victories in all competitions, are looking to complete the perfect group stage with six consecutive victories and will take the lead in the group if they avoid defeat by Liverpool by four goals or more.
Rangers are looking to claim a first point in the group when they visit Ajax in the other match. Ajax will finish third, and thus fall into the Europa League knockout rounds, by avoiding defeat by five goals or more.
group b
Already out of contention for the playoffs, Atlético Madrid is at least trying to salvage the third place and its place in the Europa League qualifiers.
He visits Atletico Porto and sits at one point in front of Bayer Leverkusen, which hosts Club Brugge. Porto and Brugge are still vying for the top spot, and Brugge is one point ahead.
Atlético won the Europa League the last time they were eliminated from the Champions League group stage – in the 2009-10 and 2017-18 seasons.
Striker Alvaro Morata is not expected to be at Atletico after picking up an injury on Saturday in the team’s 3-2 loss to Cadiz in La Liga.
The last four places have already been decided, but second-placed Inter Milan will be eager to avenge their defeat in the opening round against group-winners Bayern Munich, who will be looking to complete their group stage campaigns back-to-back.
Inter lost at home to Bayern Munich 2-0 before winning three of their next four matches without conceding any goal, and the other tied at Barcelona 3-3.
But Inter will miss again Romelu Lukaku. The scoring striker returned late against Viktoria Plzen last week but suffered another hamstring injury.
Coming out of the knockout stage and with a guaranteed place in a Europa League playoff match, Barcelona finished their Champions League campaign looking to come out on a positive note on their visit to Plzeň without a win. Barcelona beat Plzen in the opening match but were winless in their next four group stage matches.
group d
In a rare event for a group, all four teams enter the final round of matches with a chance to advance.
The first-placed VAR was denied an injury-time goal last week that would have secured a victory over Sporting and a place in the knockout stage.
Now, the English team is weak on its way to Marseille, who are in last place – two points behind Tottenham – but will prevail with a victory at Stade Velodrome.
Sporting host Eintracht Frankfurt and will advance to avoid defeat. Frankfurt are equal in points with Sporting, but fall behind due to their loss at home to the Portuguese team in their first meeting. Frankfurt will advance with a win and still be able to top the group.