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Chris Bevan
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport at Etihad Stadium

Image source, Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport

Olympiakos may be 45-time Greek champions, but they have had rather less success on these shores - one team excepted.

On 17 previous visits to England, they have won only twice - both against Arsenal, and on both occasions at the Emirates Stadium.

The Greek side beat the Gunners in a Champions League group game in 2015, and repeated the trick earlier this year when they knocked Mikel Arteta's side out of the Europa League.

It's the Etihad Stadium tonight of course, and a different airline... but does that sound close enough for them to fancy another success?

Here come the players, Jurgen Klopp snooded up on what looks like a chilly evening in northern Italy.

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Speaking of the greats, you may have seen the news that Argentina legend Diego Maradona is not well.

It's just been confirmed that he will undergo surgery for a subdural haematoma, a blood clot on the brain.

Leopoldo Luque, Maradona's personal physician, said the procedure was a "routine surgery".

"We are going to operate today. He is lucid, he understands, he agrees with the intervention," Luque said.

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Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema found the net on at Borussia Monchengladbach last week, the 16th different season the Frenchman has found the net in the Champions League, a joint-record he shares with Ryan Giggs and Lionel Messi.

Nearly time to get the main show on the road tonight.

Where are we getting an upset?

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Excluding qualifiers, Atalanta have only failed to score in one of their last 19 games in major European competition (0-4 v Dinamo Zagreb last season), while they’ve averaged 2.1 goals per game over the course of this run (40 goals in total).

Improbably, this is the first ever Champions League meeting between a Danish and Dutch club.

In the European Cup, it hasn’t happened since October 1963, when PSV won 7-1 against Esbjerg fB, eliminating them 11-4 on aggregate in the first round.

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Bayern Munich haven’t trailed for a single minute in any of their last 10 Champions League matches, since going 1-0 down to Olympiakos in October 2019. The last team to go 11 matches without falling behind was Barcelona between September 2018 and May 2019.

A draw, Atletico love a draw, but that's a good point in the race to be behind Bayern.

Liverpool

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp tells BT Sport: "The description (playing Atalanta is like going to the dentists) is good because it is very intense and a fight all over the pitch. They will be direct in possession and use the physical strength of the front two. The power of the wing-backs too and there are a lot of things to think about.

"We need to have possession ourselves and when we bring ourselves in a good mood we can be uncomfortable for the opponent. Pep Guardiola was right, it is not a draw when I saw on the TV and thought, 'yes we go to Bergamo'. Nobody wants us and we can be a pain too.

"Clean sheets is the best way to win a game but we have to play good football, we have to be well organised and adapt to the specific ways of Atalanta. We have to deny that and push through our own idea. Clean sheets are nice, no doubt about that but that is not the main target.

"(Told Rhys Williams) just play football, he has been playing for 15 years so is an experienced player."

An absolute hammering.

Chris Bevan
Â鶹ԼÅÄ Sport at Etihad Stadium

A dank November night is the setting for Manchester City's 80th Champions League game, against the 45-time Greek champions.

Victory would see City take a big step towards making the knock-out stages for an eighth straight season - especially if Porto beat Marseille in Group C's other game tonight. That combination of results would leave City only needing a draw in Greece later this month to maintain their ever-present record in the last-16 since 2013-14.

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Stephen Warnock
Ex-Liverpool defender on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 5 Live

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Pep Guardiola wants Raheem Sterling to play on the wing for 90 minutes - you don't want him being a bit-part player, you want his quality to be used in the right area. I'm not a fan of putting players in positions where they shouldn't be playing because you think they can do it for a game or two.

If you've got a striker in the squad, like Ferran Torres, that you think is more capable then use him and give him the experience of playing there. You're never going to replace Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus has had a bad injury, so I think Torres is the best option at the moment.

Football fans are brutal.

Amrul: Roberto Firmino 182 games and 58 goals in 5 years. As a frontman that is a poor record. Jota's record for Wolves was not great but he deserves the chance now.

Garry: Yes. Jota is a far bigger threat in front of goal

Liverpool

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Liverpool have lost all three of their away Champions League matches in Italy under manager Jurgen Klopp, losing to Roma in May 2018 and Napoli in October 2018 and September 2019.

A tough night awaits...

Stephen Warnock
Ex-Liverpool defender on Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 5 Live

Diogo Jota changes Liverpool's style of play, the pace that he has changes the game. Jota brings more directness where Roberto Firmino is more intricate and clever and likes to build the play up himself. Liverpool fans have criticised Firmino recently about slowing Liverpool attacks down - when you think about two or three years ago and the speed that Liverpool used to play at, Firmino has definitely slowed that down more recently. Liverpool are a better team with Jota in it at the moment considering Firmino's form.

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Before today, Shakhtar had never lost a European home match by more than a three-goal margin.

What a win this is.

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Inter midfielder Arturo Vidal has scored against Real Madrid in the Champions League with two previous teams, Juventus and Bayern Munich. No player has ever scored against Real Madrid with three different teams in the competition.

He's done an admirable job stepping in but City fans will be pleased to see Gabriel Jesus back on the bench this evening.