Champions League Preview | RB Leipzig vs Red Star Belgrade | OneFootball

RB Leipzig will be looking to return to winning ways in the Champions League as they take on Red Star Belgrade at the Red Bull Arena tonight.

Leipzig currently sit in 2nd place in group G after gaining three points against Young Boys and then losing 3-1 against the holders Manchester City on matchday two.

Red Star find themselves bottom of the group with just one point after also losing 3-1 to Manchester City and then drawing 2-2 against Young Boys.

Domestically, Leipzig sit 5th in the Bundesliga, earning 17 points in 8 games. They have lost just one match which was on the opening day against Bayer Leverkusen.

Red Star have lost just two matches in the Super Liga Srbije and are currently in 2nd place, four points behind league leaders Partizan.

Reaching the knockout stages will be a realistic aim for Marco Rose’s side with the calibre of players he has in comparison to Red Star and Young Boys. Manchester City are the current champions and have arguably the best squad in the competition so a second-place finish will certainly be satisfactory for Leipzig.

Red Star will be dreaming of causing an upset and sneaking in second place to qualify for the knockout stages as they are competing in the Champions League group stage for the first time since 2019/20. Barak Bakhar’s side will take positives from the previous two matches in the competition after leading 1-0 at half time away at Manchester City and scoring two goals past Young Boys.

Leipzig will be without Willi Orban and El Chadaille Bitshiabu due to serious knee injuries, but there are no injury issues otherwise.

Hungarian goalkeeper Péter Gulácsi may be handed a start to gain some more match sharpness after recovering from a cruciate ligament tear.

Dani Olmo, Timo Werner and Benjamin Šeško may also be handed starts after only being on the bench in the last victory against Darmstadt.

Red Star are still awaiting to see if their star striker Osman Bukari will be fit for the match as he has missed the last two matches with a knock.

Filippo Falco is still out injured with a long-term injury, but Peter Olayinka could start in attack if Bukari is out of the team.

GGFN | Matthew Gritton