MADRID: On Wednesday night, FC Barcelona and Atletico Madrid will begin their Champions League campaigns with crucial home games. Barcelona enters their European campaign under pressure, knowing that, after coming third in their group the previous season, they must get past the group stage this time around due to the club's precarious financial status.
However, Xavi Hernandez's team was placed in a difficult group where Bayern Munich and Inter Milan would be significant competitors, therefore it is imperative for Barca to open the tournament with a clean sheet at home against Viktoria Plzen.
With Robert Lewandowski, Ousmane Dembele, and Raphinha combining nicely in attack, Alejandro Balde has been a revelation at left-back, and Eric Garcia is more composed in defence, Barca enters the game having scored 10 goals in their last three La Liga games.
Xavi might take use of the game to introduce some roster rotations and the newest additions. Frenkie de Jong has a high chance of starting in central midfield, while Jordi Alba, who was recently demoted to second or possibly third choice left-back, could also start. Marcos Alonso and Hector Bellerin could also play a role.
It appears that optimism has returned to Camp Nou after a trying summer, but due to debt, Barca is under enormous pressure to do well in Europe. When Porto plays at the Metropolitano Stadium, Atletico Madrid's Champions League campaign gets underway. Porto is likely their toughest group opponent.
Featuring four victories in five games in their domestic league, the Portuguese team is now ranked fifth. In a group with Club Brugge and Bayer Leverkusen, though, starting with three points would give Atletico a significant edge going into the remaining group matches.
Ivo Grbic will start in goal for Atletico on Wednesday because Jan Oblak will be absent after picking up a knock in their weekend draw with Real Sociedad.
As part of Atletico's ongoing strategy to avoid having to pay Barca 40 million euros for the striker at the conclusion of the season, Antoine Griezmann will once more start on the bench.
According to the terms of Griezmann's loan agreement, Atletico must pay that sum if Griezmann participates in 45 or 50% of the team's matches. To avoid this, the forward has thus far only been used as a substitute with 30 minutes remaining in each game.
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