LONDON: Neymar and Luis Suarez will lead the attack again when Barcelona visit Borussia Moenchenglad­bach in their first Champions League game since losing Lionel Messi to an injury.

The two forwards led Barca to a 5-0 win at Sporting Gijon in La Liga on Saturday, when Messi was already sidelined because of a groin ailment, and on Wednesday they will try to help the Catalan club end Moenchengladbach’s 11-game winning streak at home in all competitions.

Neymar has scored four goals in the last four matches, while Suarez has eight goals in his nine games this season.

Barca have won only once in their last six matches against Bundesliga teams in Germany.

Another German club with an important match against Spanish opposition are Bayern Munich, who play at Atletico Madrid in a rematch of last season’s semi-finals.

Barca’s trip to Germany to take on Gladbach will see goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen come up against his hometown team, whom he left in 2014 to move to Spain.

“I absolutely cannot wait for it,” he said. “I had a great time there and spent my entire career there apart from the last two years. Borussia is my first love and that will always be the case.”

Ter Stegen made 108 Bundesliga appearances for Borussia from 2011-14.

Celtic lost 7-0 to Ter Stegen’s Barca in the opener, and things don’t get much easier for the Scottish champions in Group ‘C’.

Next up for Celtic are Manchester City, who are on a 10-match winning run under new coach Pep Guardiola.

One of their best performances so far was a 4-0 win over Gladbach.

Celtic last beat Premier League opposition a decade ago when Shunsuke Nakamura’s superb free-kick saw off Manchester United, but the financial chasm between Scottish football and the Premier League has only widened since then.

It is a repeat of last season’s semi-final at the Vicente Calderon as Bayern visit Atletico looking for revenge for their defeat in that tie.

Captain Philipp Lahm, however, downplayed any talk of revenge.

“We can’t make up for the loss last season,” he said. “Our job is to get points and then we could speak about a good start to this year’s campaign. But we know what to expect and it won’t be easy.”

The Bavarians now have Carlo Ancelotti at the helm, the Italian who coached Real Madrid to their dramatic Champions League final win over Atletico in Lisbon in 2014.

The clubs also met in the 1974 final with Bayern prevailing in a replay, but Diego Simeone’s Atletico are formidable in front of their own fans and unbeaten this season so will be hopeful of ending Bayern’s perfect record so far in this campaign.

In the other Group ‘B’ match, Rostov hosts PSV Eindhoven in a clash between the two sides who both lost on matchday one. Rostov were thumped 5-0 at Bayern while PSV lost 1-0 at home to Atletico.

It is all even in Group ‘A’ with Paris St Germain squandering a host of chances before having to settle for a 1-1 draw at home to Arsenal in their opener while Ludogorets Razgrad claimed a 1-1 draw away at FC Basel.

PSG are away to Bulgarian side Ludogorets under pressure to get a result after a patchy start to the season including a 2-0 defeat at Toulouse on Friday that left them fourth in Ligue 1.

Three months after playing against each other at the European Champion­ship, the Xhaka brothers will meet again.

Granit Xhaka should line up for Arse­nal against his older brother Taulant, a defender for Swiss team Basel.

At Euro 2016, Granit played for Switzerland while Taulant featured for Albania after switching his international allegiance in 2013.

Napoli were the only winners in Group ‘B’ in the opening round and have a chance to solidify their lead when they host Benfica.

The Italian side will be relying on 22-year-old Poland forward Arkadiusz Milik, who has filled in admirably after Gonzalo Higuain’s Italian-record transfer to Juventus for 90 million euros ($99 million) and scored both goals in the 2-1 comeback win at Dynamo Kiev.

After on-loan Talisca’s last-gasp equaliser secured a 1-1 draw against his parent club Benfica last time out, Turkish champions Besiktas entertain Kiev at their impressive Vodafone Arena in Istanbul.

Published in Dawn September 28th, 2016