Champions League: Haaland finds Dortmund, Real without Benzema ... Wednesday's program

It will be necessary to play skilfully with the remote control to not miss any goal of the royal evening between Manchester, Madrid and Turin.

Wisdom commands to start at City's Etihad Stadium where City's scoring machine Erling Haaland is making his first European outing.

Not to be missed either, Real without Benzema against Leipzig.

Neither Juventus in a match at stake against Benfica.

Citizen Haaland facing his former club

Manchester City's flagship rookie after two and a half seasons in Dortmund, Erling Haaland welcomes his former club Borussia without qualms this Wednesday evening (9 p.m. / beIN Sports 3), at the head of "Citizens" more than ever contenders to final victory.

With 12 goals in eight games with City, the statistics of the young Norwegian Terminator, 22, are already dizzying.

Expected at the turn in the Premier League, he confirmed the worst fears of a good part of the competition, 10 goals in six days, to which is added a double against Sevilla (4-0) last week.

Dortmund, correct 5th in the Bundesliga but spanked 3-0 in Leipzig on Saturday, goes to the revealing "City", after a logical victory against Copenhagen at the opening last week (3-0).

This summer, Borussia had to let Haaland go (86 goals in 89 games), faithful to its role as a springboard club, as it had been for Lewandowski, Aubameyang, Ousmane Dembélé or Sancho before him... and maybe be Bellingham, next summer.

Although Dortmund received "only" €60m, the amount of the Norwegian's release clause, they are relieved to have ended the Haaland transfer series.

"So far, everything has gone well," the neo-citizen told Telemundo Deportes this week.

You can see it with the goals and the way we play.

I tried to get into the team and assimilate it as quickly as possible.

It's a nice system, really complicated, but really nice..."

Real reduced but confident

Leader of La Liga, the European champion wins everything this season but loses players as the games go.

During the walk to Celtic Park (3-0), Real had lost Benzema (hit in the right thigh) and Militao.

During his trip to Mallorca (4-1 Sunday), Carlo Ancelotti lamented the injury to Vazquez, the right piston.

That said, the Madrid team remain reasonably optimistic ahead of RB Leipzig's visit to the Bernabeu stadium this Wednesday evening (9 p.m. / beIN 1).

Nkunku's team, beaten in their stadium 4-1 by Shaktar Donetsk and currently 10th in the league, is not quite big enough to shake Real.

Especially since it will be deprived of Laimer, its Austrian international midfielder, injured in the left ankle.

Beware, however, of the effect Marco Rose, the new coach, whose first meeting resulted in a success in front of Dortmund 3-0 in the league on Saturday.

Juve in search of lost time

The Old Lady is playing big this Wednesday evening (9 p.m. / beIN 4) against Benfica, its main rival for the 2nd ticket in the 1/8th final.

"For us, on paper, the qualification will be decided during the double confrontation against Benfica", estimated Massimiliano Allegri, the Bianconeri coach after the draw.

The inaugural defeat at the Parc des Princes (2-1) confirmed the pallor of the current Juve, diminished by a trainload of injuries: Pogba, Chiesa, Jorge, Ake, Rabiot, Locatelli, Di Maria and Szczesny - the latter four possibly being operational on Wednesday evening.

On Sunday, Juve's last outing, 8th in Serie A, a 2-2 draw against Salernitana, was disastrous: a valid goal disallowed by VAR for an alleged offside and a game finished at nine after the exclusions of Milik and Cuadrado, as well as that of Allegri… Benfica, intractable leader of the Portuguese championship with six victories in as many games, began its European campaign with a 2-0 conforming over Haifa at Luz (2-0).

On Wednesday, we will watch for the possible first minutes in red of Draxler, loaned by PSG against 2.5 million euros, the biggest salary in "Liga Portugal" - 580,000 euros monthly, 80% of which is at the expense of the Parisian club.

The program

Group A

(21h00) Glasgow Rangers (SCO) - Napoli (ITA)

scheduled for Tuesday (9 p.m.), the meeting was postponed for 24 hours following the death of Queen Elizabeth II

Group E

(6:45 p.m.) AC Milan (ITA) - Dinamo Zagreb (CRO)

(21h00) Chelsea (ENG) - RB Salzburg (AUT)

Group F

(6:45 p.m.) Shakhtar Donetsk (UKR) - Celtic Glasgow (SCO)

(21h00) Real Madrid (ESP) - RB Leipzig (GER)

Group G

Copenhagen (DEN) - Sevilla FC (ESP)

Manchester City (ENG) - Borussia Dortmund (GER)

Group H

Maccabi Haifa (ISR) - Paris SG (FRA)

Juventus Turin (ITA) - Benfica Lisbon (POR)