5️⃣ big questions ahead of Wednesday's Champions League action | OneFootball

It’s time for round two of the Champions League group stage, and we have some mouth-watering fixtures ahead of us on Wednesday.

Here are the five biggest questions ahead of the evening’s action.

Can St James’ Park inspire Newcastle to cause huge shock?

For the first time in 20 years, the Champions League is back at St. James’ Park – and they’ve got one hell of an opening night ahead.

That’s because Kylian Mbappé and co. are in town fresh off the back of their comfortable 2-0 win over Borussia Dortmund on Matchday One.

These are the kind of nights that Magpies supporters have been dreaming of for two decades, expect tifos, drone displays, the works.

Eddie Howe will be hoping the hostile atmosphere will be a leveller as he looks to mastermind a group stage shock and he will take heart from how his team performed in the second half of their 0-0 draw with Milan, putting up a dogged defensive display to salvage a point at the San Siro.

Newcastle have won all three of their games since then without conceding, beating Manchester City and smashing eight past Sheffield United along the way.

Howe’s side couldn’t be going into the clash in better form and the ingredients for a famous European night in the north east are all there.

Will Manchester City get back to winning ways?

RB Leipzig meeting Manchester City in the Champions League is becoming an annual event.

The two sides lock horns for a third successive season with Pep Guardiola’s side hitting the Bundesliga team for seven in the last-16 on the way to lifting the trophy last campaign.

But there’s something different about the holders going into this season’s meet-up – City are in the midst of a poor run in form by their standards.

City have lost their last two games against Wolves in the Premier League and Newcastle in the EFL Cup, suggesting they might not be the perfect winning machine we all thought they were.

Guardiola has had to deal without Rodri for those two fixtures which symbols the importance of the Spaniard to his set-up but has his midfield orchestrator back for the trip to Germany.

City’s progression to the knockout rounds shouldn’t be under any threat but a defeat at the Red Bull Arena may leave them with a challenge to claim first place in the group and inadvertently an easier draw (on paper, at least) in the last-16.

Are Barcelona the real deal?

Whisper it quietly, but Barcelona might be back.

The picture around their Champions League journey looks a lot different than their previous two ventures into the competition, where they failed to make it out of the group stage, suffering exits at the hands of Benfica and Inter respectively.

But this feels like a Barça team that means business having made an unbeaten start to the LaLiga season as well as making light work of Royal Antwerp in their group opener, swatting the Belgians 5-0 at home.

Xavi’s team were built on solidity on their way to the league title last season – winning 1-0 on 13 different occasions – but there were concerns over their ability to impress in style.

Those concerns have been quashed so far in this campaign, with the most goals scored in LaLiga (19) in eight games adding to their thumping start in Europe. We’ll know more about how good the Catalans are come the end of Wednesday as they face perhaps their toughest test of 2023/24 so far.

Porto are the second seeds in this group and are perennial Champions League participants, notoriously difficult to beat at home. A trip to the Estadio Dragao has all the makings of a banana skin for the Spanish champions.

Can Borussia Dortmund step up to the plate?

If you were taking any notice of the mood music around Borussia Dortmund you wouldn’t think they were still unbeaten in the league.

But performances have been less than impressive with draws to newly-promoted Heidenheim and away to Bochum suggesting the remnants from missing out on the Bundesliga title in such dramatic fashion on the last day of last season are still being felt.

There is hope for Edin Terzić’s side though and it comes in the form of a packed Westfalenstadion on a Champions League night with a historic opponent ahead of them.

A win over Milan with the backdrop of an electric atmosphere could be just the remedy to kickstart their campaign and after the opening game loss to PSG, their European hopes are relying heavy on them pulling it off.

This is the renowned ‘group of death’ but there is a place, likely to be alongside PSG, there for a team to rise above and claim.

Can Dortmund shake off their malaise and give their supporters a night to remember?

Will Feyenoord upset the apple cart?

Don’t sleep on Feyenoord.

Arne Slot’s men steamrolled their way to the Eredivisie title last season and have started 23/24 unbeaten – including that 4-0 drubbing of Ajax, a performance so good they needed four days to complete the game.

They find themselves plonked in a group that is wide open, particularly after Atlético Madrid’s opening day draw with Lazio (thanks to goalkeeper Ivan Provedel’s last-minute equaliser).

With the electric Calvin Stengs on the wing and Santiago Gimenéz up top, with 10 goals to his name already, it’s evident why the Dutch champions have already netted 28 times in eight games in all competitions.

Any team holding that sort of firepower are a threat in any competition, and Diego Simeone will be cautious that his team could be facing an uphill battle to qualify if they don’t take their visitors seriously.

This group is there for the taking. Don’t be surprised if Feyenoord rise up.