LONDON: It may look like one of the great mis-matches of Champions League history, but Real Madrid, who won their tenth European Cup last May, cannot afford to underestimate Ludogorets from the tiny Bulgarian town of Razgrad on matchday two on Wednesday.

Football is slowly coming to accept that a team who might once have been regarded as amateur actors bumping into furniture on the European stage have the potential to be significant performers.

They may still have been a little-known third division club only five years ago but progress since being taken over in 2010 by Kiril Domuschiev, one of the richest men in Bulgaria, has been spectacular.

Some observers still feared for them after being thrown into a daunting looking Group ‘B’ with Real Madrid, Liverpool and Basel.

Yet in the opening game at Anfield two weeks ago they were robbed of a draw against the five-time winners only through conceding an unnecessary last-minute penalty converted by Steven Gerrard.

As in the Europa League, coach Georgi Dermendzhiev’s side are playing home games at the national stadium in Sofia, some 275 kilometers away, because of the inadequacies of their own 8,000-capacity ground.

That has hardly proved a handicap so far, Valencia’s 4-0 success there being the only home defeat in seven European games over the last two campaigns.

Dermendzhiev did admit, however, that his team played “poorly” in Saturday’s 3-2 defeat away to Levski Sofia.

Real, meanwhile, were comfortable 2-0 winners at Villareal, continuing their improvement after a slow start in La Liga.

The holders started their Group ‘B’ programme by thrashing Basel 5-1, which means the Swiss side need to take something from Liverpool’s visit, which is also on Wednesday.

They will hope to profit from Liverpool’s inconsistency, which continued in dropping two late points in a 1-1 draw at home to their big local rivals Everton on Saturday.

Much is expected of Liverpool’s inconsistent but talented Italian international striker Mario Balotelli, who has yet to show he is capable of filling the giant gap left by Luis Suarez’s departure as the team have fallen to three defeats in their last five Premier League outings.

Atletico Madrid were minutes away from winning the European Cup in last season’s Lisbon final before the title slipped away to their neighbours.

Now after losing this season’s opener 3-2 away to Olympiakos Pireaus , the La Liga champions face a crucial game on Wednesday when Serie A champions Juventus come to town.

Juve top both Serie A, with a 100 percent record from five games, and Champions League Group ‘A’, Carlos Tevez having scored twice in their 2-0 win against Malmo.

A loss to Juventus, combined with an Olympiakos win at Swedish side Malmo, would leave Atletico six points adrift in the group but Atletico will be boosted by the return of coach Diego Simeone to the sidelines after he missed the first game due to suspension.

“We haven’t been able to make the step up in Europe over the last three years. We started well in our first game at home, where in previous seasons we missed important opportunities,” Juve midfielder Claudio Marchisio told the club’s website.

“Now we’ve got a tricky game in Madrid. Opening up a six-point gap on them would represent a big step forward towards qualification.”

In Group ‘D’, Arsenal host Galatasaray on Wednesday following an opening defeat to Borussia Dortmund with both Mikel Arteta and Aaron Ramsey out injured while the Germans travel to Anderlecht.

“It was a bad game (in Dortmund),” midfielder Santi Cazorla told Arsenal’s website. “Now we are fully aware that we are almost obliged to win the next Champions League game because there may be problematic times for us if we don’t so we’d better win.”

The night’s other matches see Bayer Leverkusen host Benfica and first-day winners Zenit and Monaco meet in St Petersburg.

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2014