Barcelona will be looking to win their third successive game in the Champions League when they travel to Serbia to take on Red Star Belgrade on Wednesday night.
The Catalan giants are also bidding to win their third straight away match without reply in all competitions, while the Red-Whites enter this contest having won just one of their last six home games in the Champions League.
Match preview
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Aside from minor setbacks against Monaco (2-1) in the Champions League and Osasuna (4-2) in La Liga, Barcelona have been perfect in 13 other fixtures at the start of this season and head into Wednesday's contest boasting a six-game winning streak, scoring an impressive 24 goals in the process.
Hansi Flick's men cruised to a 5-0 home win over Young Boys in their second Champions League fixture of the newly-formed league phase, before putting Bayern Munich to the sword 4-1 on matchday three a fortnight ago, helping them climb up to 10th in the 36-team UCL table and to within three points of the summit.
On the domestic front, Barcelona followed up their memorable 4-0 El Clasico triumph against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu with a 3-1 success against Catalan rivals Espanyol last weekend, courtesy of a brace from summer signing Dani Olmo and a strike from in-form winger Raphinha.
Already sitting nine points clear at the top of the La Liga standings, albeit having played a game more that Real Madrid in second, Barcelona will now shift their focus back to the Champions League and are preparing for their first encounter with Red Star since October 1996 when the Catalan giants won 4-2 on aggregate in the second round of the UEFA Cup Winners' Cup en route to winning the competition.
After scoring nine goals across their last two Champion League matches against Young Boys (four) and Bayern (five), Barcelona are now bidding to score four or more goals in three consecutive European matches for the first time since the 1959-60 campaign when they scored five against AC Milan and nine across a two-legged tie with Wolverhampton Wanderers.
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Red Star Belgrade are one of nine clubs who are still searching for their first victory in the 2024-25 Champions League, and are also one of six teams who are yet to pick up a single point after three matches, while they have also conceded a joint-high 11 goals (level with Slovan Bratislava and Dinamo Zagreb).
The Red-Whites were beaten 2-1 at home to Benfica on matchday one and suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat away against Inter Milan on matchday two, before losing 5-1 at Monaco in their most recent UCL game a fortnight ago. Red Star have now lost 81% of their Champions League matches (W2 D2 L17), the worst ratio of any team to have played at least 20 games in the competition.
Vladan Milojevic's side are unsurprisingly languishing in 33rd place in the 36-team table, but they are only three points behind the last-16 playoff spots with five games remaining. However, it is difficult to envisage the Serbia outfit collecting precious points in their next three fixtures against Barcelona, Stuttgart and AC Milan.
While points have been hard to come by for Red Star in the Champions League thus far, they have excelled on the domestic front, as they have won 12 and drawn one of their 13 Serbian SuperLiga matches this term, scoring 43 goals and conceding just eight. They extended their lead at the top of the table to 10 points thanks to a 3-0 win over Vojvodina on Sunday, four days after thrashing Tekstilac Odzaci 7-0 in the Serbian Cup.
Red Star head into Wednesday's clash with Barcelona having won just two of their previous nine European meetings with the Catalan giants - both during the 1960s in the Fairs Cup (3-2 in December 1962 and 1-0 in January 1963). They are now bidding to avoid becoming the first team since Benfica between March 2017 and September 2018 to lose eight Champions League games in a row.
Team News
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Red Star winger Peter Olayinka is ruled out with an Achilles injury, while Nemanja Radonjic is also set to miss Wednesday's game after being forced off with an unspecified issue just eight minutes after coming on as a substitute against Vojvodina on Sunday.
Goalkeeper Omri Glazer and defender Ognjen Mimovic have been sidelined for much of this season due to injury and it remains to be seen whether both players will be ready to return to the matchday squad against Barcelona.
Cherif Ndiaye is Red Star's top scorer so far this season with 10 goals in 14 games and he is expected the lead the line alongside Bruno Duarte, who has six goals to his name this term, while ex-AC Milan midfielder Rade Krunic, Timi Max Elsnik and 17-year-old Andrija Maksimovic could all links arms in the middle of the pitch.
As for Barcelona, they will be without Marc-Andre ter Stegen, Marc Bernal (both knee), Ronald Araujo, Ferran Torres (both hamstring), Eric Garcia (muscle) and Andreas Christensen (Achilles) due to injury.
Flick may consider recalling Jules Kounde at right-back at the expense of Hector Fort, while Frenkie de Jong and Gavi will be hoping to force their way back into centre-midfield ahead of Marc Casado and Pedri.
Raphinha has contributed to 20 goals (11 goals, nine assists) in 15 games under Flick. The Brazilian winger - who scored a hat-trick in the 4-1 win over Bayern Munich on matchday three - is expected to start in attack next to Robert Lewandowski and Lamine Yamal.
Red Star Belgrade possible starting lineup:
Ilic; Young-woo, Spajic, Djiga; Silas, Krunic, Elsnik, Maksimovic, Rodic; Duarte, Ndiaye
Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Pena; Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde; De Jong, Pedri; Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha; Lewandowski
We say: Red Star Belgrade 0-4 Barcelona
Red Star are sure to reminisce about their memorable 2-0 win over Liverpool in the Champions League six years to the day of their clash with Barcelona, but it is difficult to envisage the Serbia giants pulling off an almighty upset against Flick's in-form crop on Wednesday.
Indeed, Barcelona have been scoring goals for fun recently and we can see the Catalan giants cruising to another comfortable win in Belgrade.
For data analysis of the most likely results, scorelines and more for this match please click here.
Oliver Thomas
