Camp Nou is up for a key encounter tonight as Barcelona welcome Inter Milan in what could be a huge boost of the Catalan’s Champions League knockout-round hopes.Barcelona failed to progress through the group stage in the Champions League last season, and the club are facing that possibility again this term, with a total of three points from three matches leaving them third in Group C, three points behind second-placed Inter and six from leaders Bayern Munich.Currently, Blaugrana is third in Group C, three points behind second-placed Inter, with the Italian giants recording a 1-0 victory when the two teams locked horns at San Siro last week.Barcelona will be aware of the importance of winning Wednesday’s contest, and they will be pleased to be back on home soil, having not lost at Camp Nou in any competition since May.Xavi’s side opened their group-stage campaign with a 5-1 victory over Viktoria Plzen on September 7 but have lost their last two in the competition, going down 2-0 at Bayern before the loss to Inter 1-0 at San Siro.However, even though they are struggling in the Champions League this season, the Catalan outfit have been excellent in La Liga, where they have recorded seven straight victories. And let’s not forget that the next match for Barcelona in the Spanish top tier is El Clasico at Santiago Benabeu in four days.The last time FC Barcelona faced Inter and Madrid in the same week. 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 pic.twitter.com/OvDKjCicBd— BeksFCB (@Joshua_Ubeku) October 11, 2022 Il Nerazzurri entered the clash with Barcelona last week off the back of successive Serie A defeats to Udinese and Roma, but a huge performance allowed them to secure all three points.Inter will also enter this match off the back of an important Serie A victory, having beat Sassuolo 2-1, with Edin Dzeko scoring twice for the Milan giants, who are seventh in their domestic table on 15 points.In their Champions League opener on September 7, Simone Inzaghi’s side suffered a 2-0 loss to Bayern but recorded a 2-0 victory away to Plzen before the success over Barcelona, and a total of six points has left them in second position.The Black and Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat when they last travelled to Camp Nou in the group stage of the 2019-20 competition, but Barcelona have lost three of their last six Champions League matches in front of their own supporters, which is a record that should hand the visitors confidence.CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: Rudiger saves Los Blancos from their first loss of the season, PSG and Benfica copy-paste the clash from six days agoThe Italian giants progressed through the group stage of last season’s European Cup but were beaten by Liverpool in the round of 16, and they have not made it past the first knockout round of the competition since reaching the final eight in 2010-11.A huge portion of Barcelona’s defensive line is out due to injuries as Andreas Christensen, Hector Bellerin, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde remain on the sidelines. Up front, Memphis Depay is also out but good news is that Barca welcomed Frenkie de Jong back from injury against Celta at the weekend.Head coach Xavi will make changes from the side that started that match – with Ousmane Dembele, Ansu Fati, Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia in line for starting roles.Franck Kessie has recently been out with a thigh problem but is back in the squad for this match.❗️Official: Barcelona’s squad list against Inter. pic.twitter.com/1rQRTF9jiP— Barça Universal (@BarcaUniversal) October 11, 2022 Marcos Alonso could get the nod at left-back, with Gerard Pique joining Garcia in the middle, but there are unlikely to be changes in midfield, with Gavi, Pedri and Sergio Busquets again set to start here.The visitors also have their share of absenties. Dalbert, Marcelo Brozovic, Alex Cordaz, Joaquin Correa and Gabriel Brazao remain on the sidelines for the Italian giants.Dzeko is set to feature alongside Lautaro Martinez in the final third of the field, while Denzel Dumfries could get the nod as the right-sided wing-back, with Federico Dimarco lining up on the opposite side.Romelu Lukaku has a chance of being available for selection, with the Belgium international recovering from the muscular problem that has kept him on the sidelines since the end of August, although he will not be considered for a start.UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE – GROUP STAGERound 4Tuesday Maccabi Haifa – Juventus 2-0 (2-0)/Atzili 7, 42/Copenhagen – Man.City 0-0Shakhtar – Real Madrid 1-1 (0-0)/Zubkov 46 – Rudiger 90+4/Dortmund – Sevilla 1-1 (1-1)/Bellingham 35 – Nianzou 18/AC Milan – Chelsea 0-2 (0-2)/Jorginho 21 pen, Aubameyang 34/PSG – Benfica 1-1 (1-0)/Mbappe 40 pen – Joao Mario 62 pen/Celtic – RB Leipzig 0-2 (0-0)/Werner 75, Forsberg 84/Dinamo Zagreb – Salzburg 1-1 (0-1)/Ljubicic 41 – Seiwald 12/Wednesday 19.45: (1.65) Napoli (4.20) Ajax (5.90)19.45: (1.49) Atl.Madrid (4.30) Club Brugge (7.75)22.00: (2.55) Sporting (3.40) Olympique Marseille (3.00)22.00: (8.00) Rangers (5.30) Liverpool (1.43)22.00: (1.58) Tottenham (4.30) Eintr.Frankfurt (6.75)22.00: (2.35) Leverkusen (3.50) Porto (3.25)22.00: (1.48) Barcelona (4.70) Inter (8.00)22.00: (15.0) Plzen (8.50) Bayern (1.18)***odds are subject to change
