Champions League: Build-up, your views and analysis with Man City and Newcastle in action

'Guardiola is the best coach in the world'

Man City v Napoli (20:00 BST)

Napoli

Napoli coach Antonio Conte speaking about Pep Guardiola's time at Manchester City: "The atmosphere in Manchester, Sir Alex Ferguson was for a long time at Manchester United. Now for Pep to stay at one club for 10 years is incredible. It shows there is great synergy behind him, the club and the players.

"To stay 10 years it is very difficult. You have to find new energy every year and to give energy to the players. We are talking about, in my opinion, the best coach in the world."

A famous night at St James’ Park

Newcastle v Barcelona (20:00 BST)

Karan Vinod

BBC Sport Journalist

Speaking of the infamous win against PSG, Newcastle’s solitary Champions League victory in the 2023-24 season was unforgettable - a 4-1 demolition over PSG at St James’ Park.

Goals from Miguel Almiron, Dan Burn, Sean Longstaff, and Fabian Schar sealed the win, despite the Magpies having less than 30% of possession. The stadium was bouncing that night as fans roared their team to one of the club’s most famous European victories in recent history.

This season, Newcastle will be hoping to build on those experiences and show they can compete at the highest level.

Lauded like Maradona - will De Bruyne return to haunt Man City?

Man City v Napoli (20:00 BST)

Shamoon Hafez

Football news reporter

Manchester City welcome back a familiar face who may return to haunt them as they begin their Champions League campaign on Thursday.

Kevin de Bruyne won 16 trophies in a decade at City; there are plans to immortalise him with a statue outside Etihad Stadium.

The Belgium international left City when his contract expired in June and, having made it clear it was not his choice to leave, is now plotting their downfall with Napoli.

The 34-year-old's arrival in Naples has been lauded and likened to that of Argentina legend Diego Maradona, who is still revered by the Italian side's supporters.

"Since Maradona, Napoli have not signed a player as well known as De Bruyne," Naples-based journalist Vincenzo Credendino told BBC Sport. "Maradona came at the peak of his career, but De Bruyne comes at 34."

Napoli captain Giovanni di Lorenzo said De Bruyne arrived at the club with "great humility" and described him as a "great champion".

The right-back, 32, added: "He didn't really talk about his ex-team-mates, but I am sure he will be happy to come back in this stadium where he enjoyed many good matches.

"He will be received well. They will be pleased to see him and he deserves it."

'When we were drawn against Barcelona, it had a magical feel to it'

Newcastle v Barcelona (20:00 BST)

Newcastle United

Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe spoke before tonight’s Champions League opener against Barcelona, sharing his excitement about facing one of Europe’s biggest clubs.

"When we were drawn against Barcelona, it had a magical feel to it. I'm really excited to sample the atmosphere - I think it will be an incredible thing again.

"We will try to get a positive result and prepare the players for the game. I'm looking forward to how we match up against them and there is a lot of confidence restored after winning on Saturday."

However, new forward Yoane Wissa will not be part of this fixture as he continues to be ruled out due to a knee injury.

"We hope Yoane will be back after the next international break. That's the plan."

Guardiola on City’s Champions League ambitions and Haaland

Man City v Napoli (20:00 BST)

Manchester City

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola offered his thoughts before tonight’s opener against Napoli. On whether City are contenders for the Champions League, he said:

"Apparently we are not [contenders]. Just enjoy the moment - we are happy to be here after the path we have been [on] so we are just focusing on tomorrow, the game we have to play and starting well in this competition."

He was also asked about Erling Haaland’s leadership role in the dressing room"

"It is a question of time, as normal. In the first season, he came into a team that was winning a lot - except in the Champions League - and he helped to bring that incredible trophy for us. It is a question of maturity over time. He is a little bit older even though he is still young."

Palmer getting back to his best

Tom McCoy

BBC Sport journalist

While the 3-1 defeat to Bayern Munich ended Chelsea’s nine-game unbeaten run, there were plenty of encouraging signs for Blues boss Enzo Maresca, not least another good performance from Cole Palmer on his 100th appearance for the club.

The 23-year-old scored a well-taken goal to briefly give his side hope and also had a late effort ruled out for offside.

Palmer made his return from a groin issue in Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Brentford, in which he scored his first league goal from open play since January.

Ensuring the talented Englishman is fit and firing will be crucial to Chelsea’s hopes this season. He has been directly involved in 73 goals in all competitions since his Blues debut two years ago, a record bettered by only Erling Haaland and Mohamed Salah amongst Premier League players.

Qarabag steal the show

Champions League round-up

The biggest story of the week so far? Azerbaijan's Qarabag.

They became the first Azerbaijani side to win a Champions League main draw match with a 3-2 victory over Benfica.

Having qualified for Europe's premier competition for the first time in eight years, Gurban Gurbanov's side found themselves facing a 2-0 deficit after just 16 minutes.

The Azerbaijan champions halved the deficit on the half-hour mark through a fine Leandro Andrade finish and equalised shortly after the break.

Substitute Oleksii Kashchuk got the historic winning goal five minutes from time, picking the ball up with his back to goal before finishing brilliantly on the turn.

History for Qarabag, and the result led to the sacking of Benfica manager Bruno Lage.

With Jose Mourinho saying he is close to being appointed their new manager after arriving in Lisbon for talks with the Portuguese club.

Debutants unbeaten so far

Champions League round-up

After Union Saint-Gilloise's historic opening night victory, Bodo/Glimt and Pafos followed it up with a point each away from home to leave the teams making their Champions League debuts unbeaten so far.

Bodo needed two goals in the final 12 minutes to come from 2-0 down at Slavia Prague with Sondre Fet the hero for the Norwegian side.

Pafos may have only been formed 11 years ago but they held Greek giants Olympiacos to a goalless draw despite playing 64 minutes with 10 men following Bruno's red card.

Can we have an opening week clean sweep for the debutants?

Kairat Almaty face a tricky trip to Portugal on Thursday for their first ever Champions League match when they take on Sporting Lisbon.

The Kazakhstan champions are only the second side from the country to play in the Champions League, after Astana in 2015-16.

They beat Celtic on penalties to reach this stage and host Real Madrid on matchday two.

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Alex Fletcher

BBC Sport journalist

Time now for us to move on again and round-up the rest of the week's Champions League action.

We've also got plenty of preview to Manchester City's clash with Napoli and Newcastle's match against Barcelona on the way.

And before we leave you around 15:00 BST, we have three Premier League news conferences to bring you, with Daniel Farke, Graham Potter and Keith Andrews all speaking to the media.

There is an awful lot going on today.

'Bayern won the game with a lot of experience'

Bayern Munich 3-1 Chelsea

Mario Melchiot

Former Netherlands defender on BBC Radio 5 Live

Former Chelsea defender Mario Melchiot praised Bayern Munich’s know-how in their win, pointing to Harry Kane’s experience and individual errors from the Blues as decisive moments in the match.

"Bayern won the game with a lot of experience. You talk about the goals Chelsea conceded - Kane with the intelligence to understand that you're 32 and you understand how to put your body and move it for Caicedo to not get to the ball.

"The second goal was Gusto's back pass which was wrong. Bayern was ready to play against them and give them the feeling that they are going to dictate the tempo, especially in the beginning when Chelsea began well."

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