On Tuesday, defending champion Liverpool and Barcelona open their Champions League campaigns with difficult away games as the top club competition of Europe returns.
Liverpool Started Champions League defense at Napoli
The 65th season of Europe’s premier club football tournament or the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League has just concluded with its Qualifying round which was started on 25 June and was conclude on 28 August 2019.
The winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Champions League are going to play in the 2020 UEFA Super Cup and will earn the chance to play against the winners of the 2019–20 UEFA Europa League in the 2020 UEFA Super Cup.
The final of the tournament is scheduled to be played at the Atatürk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey.
Now the group stage has started from today onwards that is on 17 September 2019 and the tournament will carry on till 30 May 2020.
2019–20 UEFA Champions League
Liverpool has travelled to Napoli, where they have lost in the group stage previous season, while Barcelona on the other hand visits Borussia Dortmund as the Spanish giant recommences its search for a first European title since the year 2015.
Previous season’s surprise semi-finalist Ajax is also in action, playing Lille at home, while Europa League champion Chelsea on the other hand welcomes Valencia to Stamford Bridge.
The teams have been allocated into seven groups from Group A to Group H. Each group comprises of four teams who are going to compete with each other in the group stage and the winners of group stage will move to further rounds such as Round of 16, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals.
In the knockout phase, teams are first going to play against each other over two legs on a home-and-away basis, apart from for the one-match final.
From the previous experience, Liverpool knows that it can’t take anything for granted at Napoli, where they have already lost 1-0 last season before beating the Italian side by the same score at Anfield to move on to the knockout stages.
“The manager said it was probably our worst game of the season,” fullback Trent Alexander-Arnold said. “It is a really tricky place to go. The fans are really hostile.”
“Llorente is a complete forward. Because he is so tall, everyone thinks he’s just an old-fashioned center-forward, but he can play football and has great technique,” Ancelotti said. “I have many options available to me in attack now.”
On the other hand, unluckily, Barcelona star Lionel Messi is unlikely to feature because of a lingering calf injury. But Messi has also trained with his teammates on Sunday for the first time, a day after the team’s 5-2 win over Valencia in the Spanish league.
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