(Football news) The UEFA Champions League is back for the 4th round of group stage matches. Real Madrid, AC Milan, Manchester City, Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and PSG will all be in action on Wednesday night.
After their narrow 2-1 win against AS Roma, AC Milan will host Porto in the UCL. Milan are yet to open their account in the UCL points table this season. A qualification into the knockouts looks very unlikely at this stage. This game becomes a must win for the Rossoneri if they want to finish 3rd and make it to the Europa League at least. The return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic will give them a huge boost as the veteran scored against Roma as well. For AC Milan, Alessandro Florenzi, Samu Castillejo, Ante Rebic and Mike Maignan have been ruled out of the game while Porto will be without Wendell and Mateus Uribe.
Real Madrid will take on Shakhtar Donetsk at the Santiago Bernabeu. The Los Blancos haven't won at the Bernabeu since 23rd September which isn't something that Madrid fans are used to. Real Madrid defeated Elche by 2-1 on the weekend and Karim Benzema was rested for the game. The Frenchman is expected to be back in the starting line up. Vinicius Jr is in red hot form at the moment and will once again be the focal point of attack. Rodrygo and Mariano are likely to miss out after they picked up injuries on the weekend while Gareth Bale, Dani Ceballos and Fede Valverde are still not fit enough to play. There have been a lot of reports about Madrid handing first team debut to Castilla winger Peter Federico who has been impressive for the B team this season.
Signal Iduna Park will see Borussia Dortmund take on Ajax. Dortmund defeated Koln 2-0 at the weekend without Erling Haaland. The Norwegian will once again not be available along with Nico Schulz, Raphael Guerreiro and Mateu Morey while Dan-Axel Zagadou, Mahmoud Dahoud, Giovanni Reyna and Marcel Schmelzer's participation is in doubt. Ajax on the other hand will be missing shot stoppers Maarten Stekelenburg and Andre Onana along with Sean Klaiber, Zakaria Labyad and Noussair Mazraoui. Ajax will be looking to bounce back after their goalless draw against Heracles on the weekend.
Also read: Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid make inroads; Barcelona drop 2 more points at home
Inter Milan travel away to play Sheriff Tiraspol. The Maldivian club has taken Europe by storm after beating Shakhtar Donetsk at home and Real Madrid at the Bernabeu. They did lose against Inter but are still top of the table with 6 points. Apart from Christian Eriksen, all Inter players are fit for the game. Inter come into the match on the back of their comfortable 2-0 victory against Empoli while Sheriff haven't lost a league game since July.
The headline fixture of the day will be happening in Anfield where Liverpool will play Atletico Madrid. Their last game was an entertaining 3-2 win for Liverpool. Atletico will try to repeat their Anfield heroics of 2020. Liverpool faced a setback in the league as they drew at home against Brighton while Atletico Madrid defeated Real Betis 3-0 in the La Liga. Thiago, Fabinho, Harvey Elliott and James Milner will not be at Jurgen Klopp's disposal while Diego Simeone will be without Marcos Llorente, Thomas Lemar through injury. Geoffrey Kondogbia is a doubt while Stefan Savic and Antoine Griezmann are suspended.
PSG will be taking on RB Leipzig after their comeback victory against Lille on the weekend. Lionel Messi, Marco Verratti, Sergio Ramos and Leon Parades will all be unavailable for Mauricio Pochettino. The last time these two clubs met, the French side edged it in the last minute. Despite all these mega signings, PSG have been far from invincible this season and Leipzig will be hoping to beat them to open their account in the UCL this season.
