Yamal lacking for Barcelona as De Bruyne returns to Man City in Champions League

The remaining batch of matches from the primary spherical of the league stage additionally sees Kairat, a match newcomer from Almaty in Kazakhstan, go to Sporting Lisbon after a trek throughout three time zones and greater than 6,500 kilometers .

Some star energy can be lacking at St. James’ Park as a result of the 18-year-old Yamal won’t seem for Barca due to an damage the workforce mentioned the Spain winger sustained on worldwide responsibility final week.

Yamal, the inheritor to Lionel Messi at Barcelona, is essential to the workforce’s probabilities of turning into European champion for the primary time since 2015 so his absence is an enormous increase for Newcastle, which is beginning the second Champions League marketing campaign below its Saudi Arabian possession. In the 2023-24 season, Newcastle completed backside of its group within the previous format.

De Bruyne bade an emotional farewell to City in May after a 10-year stint throughout which he established himself as arguably the membership’s biggest ever participant.

Four months later, the Belgium midfielder is again at Etihad Stadium — however in a jersey of recent workforce Napoli and can look to consign City to a different gradual begin to the Champions League.

Last season, Pep Guardiola’s workforce was held to a gap 0-0 by one other Italian membership, Inter Milan, and went on to scrape into the playoff spherical, the place it misplaced to Real Madrid. City appears to be like in barely higher form a yr on, with Norway striker Erling Haaland having netted 11 objectives in six matches for membership and nation this season and searching so as to add to his 49 objectives in 48 Champions League appearances.

In different video games, Eintracht Frankfurt hosts a Galatasaray workforce that has gained all 5 of its video games within the Turkish league, Bayer Leverkusen — below new coach in Kasper Hjulmand — travels to FC Copenhagen, and Club Brugge hosts Monaco.

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