The UEFA Champions League group stages continue this week and will witness some exciting battles on the road.
As far as the Premier League clubs are concerned, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool will look to build on their winning start to the Champions League campaign while Manchester United will aim to bounce back after the opening day disappointment against BSC Young Boys in Switzerland.
Without much delay, here we put forward five players from the Premier League to look forward to in the Champions League this week.
Ruben Dias
Pep Guardiola’s Man City enjoyed a resounding 6-3 win over RB Leipzig in their first group-stage game and will be aiming to get a positive result against Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes.
Paris Saint-Germain possesses one of the best squads in Europe and will provide Manchester City with their biggest challenge so far this season. The Parisian club have received a double-injury boost ahead of the exciting clash, with the latest news indicating that both Lionel Messi and Marco Verratti will be in Mauricio Pochettino’s squad after the duo returned to training.
With Guardiola and co. facing the prospect of lining up against Neymar, Lionel Messi and Kylian Mbappe this week, Ruben Dias’ presence at the heart of City’s defence will be crucial. The Portuguese international has been a rock at the back for the Sky Blues since arriving from Benfica last year, and it’ll be interesting to see how he marshals his troops against PSG’s star-studded attack.
If City are to return home with a positive result, Dias and his fellow defenders will need to be at the top of their games in Paris.
Kevin de Bruyne
Despite failing to sign a striker in the summer, Manchester City still do boast of some terrific attacking players capable of destroying the opposition in the blink of an eye.
One of those is Kevin de Bruyne, whose timely return from injury would give Manchester City the cutting edge they need in the final third to force open well-organised defences in Europe and the Premier League.
Arguably the best midfielder and chance-creator in world football, the Belgian’s creative passing, vision and driving runs from midfield will be much-needed against PSG in the Champions League. It’ll be interesting to see how De Bruyne links up with the City attackers and breaches the PSG backline that has conceded only six goals in all competitions so far this term.
Mohamed Salah
Liverpool kicked off their Champions League campaign with a thrilling 3-2 win over AC Milan at Anfield. The Reds are unbeaten across all competitions and head to Portugal to face FC Porto off the back of a dramatic 3-3 draw with newly-promoted Brentford. FC Porto, like Liverpool, are unbeaten across all formats and will provide Jurgen Klopp’s men with a stern test on Tuesday evening.
For Liverpool, Mohamed Salah is in sublime form and reached 100 Premier League goals for the Merseyside outfit during the 3-3 draw with Brentford on Saturday. A firm favourite at Anfield since arriving from AS Roma, the Egyptian international will look to continue his brilliant goal-scoring form against Porto and help guide the Reds to another three points.
Porto would want to go for the kill from minute one but Salah will have to try every trick in his armoury to stop that from happening.
Cristiano Ronaldo
Back in May, Villarreal beat Manchester United in the Europa League final on penalty shootouts in Gdansk, Poland; so Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side need no extra motivation to come up trumps against the Spanish opponents on Wednesday at Old Trafford and bounce back after the shock 1-0 loss to BSC Young Boys.
Early elimination from the EFL Cup and the latest Premier League defeat to Aston Villa at home has seen Solskjaer come under a lot of fire, but he’ll be confident to turn things around just as he has done many times since becoming the permanent manager of Manchester United.
For the Red Devils to respond strongly after two consecutive losses, Cristiano Ronaldo will need to lead from the front. Ronaldo, 36, has hit the ground running since returning to the red half of Manchester with four goals in as many games, and nobody can deny that the Portuguese megastar’s presence on the field still brings an air of imminent danger.
Ronaldo will be a player to watch on Wednesday, and his movement and timing of runs in the box is expected to trouble the Villarreal defence.
Romelu Lukaku
Romelu Lukaku, signed for €115 million from Inter Milan this summer to help Chelsea mount a serious title challenge, has now failed to score against two top six teams—Liverpool and Manchester City.
The big Belgian’s latest struggle up front in Chelsea’s 1-0 defeat to Manchester City at Stamford Bridge on Saturday once again highlighted the striker still has it all to prove when facing the best teams and well-drilled defences. However, Lukaku will be upbeat after failing to threaten against Pep Guardiola’s side and look to silence his detractors on Wednesday, when the Blues travel to Italy to face Juventus.
Even though Juventus aren’t in the best of forms, they, like Liverpool and Manchester City, are a top club with excellent defenders who helped them maintain their dominance in Italy for a decade until Inter ended it last season.
With question marks still surrounding his ability to deliver in big moments and big games, Lukaku will be raring to expose some chinks in the Juventus defence.
