Champions League
Conference League
Premier League
Published on Nov, 06 2024
Barcelona are chasing a third consecutive UEFA Champions League win on Wednesday when they take on Red Star Belgrade in Serbia at Rajko Mitic Stadium. Hansi Flick's men are also in line for a third straight road win across all competitions while the hosts have won just one of their last six UCL games on home soil. The Catalan giants are perfect this season except for away defeats to AS Monaco in the UCL and Osasuna in La Liga with a winning streak of six games with 24 goals scored in that period alone.
Barca followed up on their 4-0 thrashing of Real Madrid in El Clasico with a 3-1 win over Espanyol in the Catalan derby with Dani Olmo and Raphinha getting the goals. Now a provisional nine points clear at the Spanish summit with a minimum cushion of at least six, it is back to the European scene for the Blaugrana who will face Red Star for the first time since they met back in 1996 in the second round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup which Barca went on to win.
As for Vladan Milojevic's home side, they are 33rd out of the 36 teams in the League Phase but three points could bridge the gap to the playoff places as we approach the four-game halfway point of the stage. With VfB Stuttgart and Milan to come after Barca, it is difficult to see where the points could be coming from although they do remain extremely strong domestically with 12 wins from 13 in the Serbian SuperLiga with 43 goals scored already. Red Star are already 10 points clear at the summit but have won just two of their last meetings with Wednesday's opponents and now need to avoid equaling SL Benfica's unwanted record of losing eight consecutive games between March 2017 and September 2018.
Flick saw his players crush Young Boys 5-0 before thumping Bayern Munich 4-1 to move up to 10th in the League Phase rankings. With nine goals across those two games, it could be the first time since 1959-60 that Barca score four or more goals in three consecutive continental games. Red Star are one of the nine sides still looking for a first win of this new edition and one of six without a single point three games in. Having conceded 11 goals which is the joint highest total alongside Slovan Bratislava and Dinamo Zagreb, they have now lost 81% of UCL games which is the worst return for any side having played 20 games or more at this level.
Red Star: Peter Olayinka is out injured while Nemanja Radonjic is also expected to miss out and Omri Glazer as well as Ognjen Mimovic are doubts. Cherif Ndiaye leads Red Star for goals with 10 from 14 outings and he should lead the attack along with Bruno Duarte who is on six. Rade Krunic, Timi Max Elsnik and Andrija Maksimovic should form the midfield.
Possible Red Star XI: Ilic; Young-woo, Spajic, Djiga; Silas, Krunic, Elsnik, Maksimovic, Rodic; Duarte, Ndiaye.
Barca: Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Marc Bernal, Ronald Araujo, Ferran Torres, Eric Garcia and Andreas Christensen ae all out injured. Flick could recall Jules Kounde at right-back while Frenkie de Jong and Gavi will hope to start ahead of Marc Casado and Pedri. Raphinha has 20 goal contributions from 15 games under Flick's leadership. The Brazil international should continue to combine with Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal up top
Possible Barca XI: Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski.
This one should be straightforward enough for Barcelona but Red Star have been known to occasionally cause bigger sides problems. That said, given the firepower that Flick's men possess, this should still be a two-goal winning margin or better. Pick: Red Star 1, Barca 3.
Editors Top Picks
