Will Morata bring the good news?
LONDON: Alvaro Morata is primed to lead Chelsea’s attack against AS Roma as the Blues seek to quickly erase the embarrassment of their weekend loss to the Premier League’s bottom club Crystal Palace.
The Spaniard missed the 2-1 defeat after injuring his hamstring against Manchester City before the international break.
But the £58 million striker underwent full training on Sunday and Chelsea captain Gary Cahill indicated his return is imminent.
“He is back out on the pitch and hopefully he keeps progressing okay,” said Cahill.
That will be welcome news to Chelsea manager Antonio Conte who substituted Morata’s replacement Michy Batshuayi on Saturday after 57 minutes of his second league start of the season.
A nine-point gap separates Chelsea from leaders City but the Blues top their Champions League group, two points ahead of second-placed Roma, after winning both opening Group C games.
One of Morata’s seven goals this season came in Chelsea’s 2-1 victory at Atletico Madrid, a result and performance that suggested the London club could be a real force in the competition.
But injuries are biting into a squad that has been criticised for being too thin, with deadline-day signing Danny Drinkwater still unfit and N’golo Kante, another hamstring victim, out for several weeks.
“When you have had a bad result and a bad performance, you want to play again as soon as possible, which is midweek for us, to try to put it right,” Cahill told the club’s website.
“My role as a skipper now is to go into training and be positive and go again. The result is gone and you go in and you work and produce a performance we know we can, get that winning feeling back and then we go from there.”
It’s the encore no one expected. After the curtains closed more than four years ago, Jupp Heynckes is back on the Champions League stage with Bayern Munich.
Heynckes, now in a fourth stint as Bayern coach, sees his side take on Celtic in the Allianz Arena tonight in an unlikely comeback from retirement for the 72-year-old coach.
After making his league return on Saturday in a 5-0 thrashing of Freiburg, Heynckes will be looking to shift Bayern’s European campaign up a gear after a 3-0 defeat to Paris Saint Germain, which prompted the dismissal of Carlo Ancelotti.
The last time Heynckes coached Bayern in the Champions League was at the 2013 final at Wembley when his side beat Borussia Dortmund 2-1 for the title.
That was a third Champions League final and a second title following a victory with Real Madrid in just three campaigns for Heynckes in the competition.
What better man to have at the helm – in charge until the end of the season – as Bayern look for a win over Celtic to keep on the trail of PSG in Group B?
The players have been kept on their toes in the first week of training under the veteran coach, who pays close attention to detail and won’t tolerate any slacking.
“In training sessions every pass and every shot is important,” striker Robert Lewandowski told the club’s website.
“We have to remain focused. We need to go forward together as a team and have fun.”
Central defender Jerome Boateng said: “He wants to make players better.”
Celtic arrive buoyed by a 3-0 win at Anderlecht in their last game in the group, their biggest away win in the Champions League, and Boateng says the Scottish champions will be dangerous opponents.
“We simply have to manage to defend as a team and to keep a clean sheet at last,” he said.
“Then I am optimistic because we have so much quality up front – even if we have to be more creative in this area as well.”
Bayern will be without defensive midfielder Javi Martinez, who picked up a shoulder injury against Freiburg, his place perhaps going to Sebastian Rudy.
Chile international Arturo Vidal is ready to return after a muscle injury and Dutch winger Arjen Robben is set for his 100th Champions League game, 60 for Bayern.
Bayern have been unbeaten in their last 11 games against Scottish sides, while Celtic have been unable to win their last seven games against German clubs.
The sides’ only past fixtures came in the 2003-04 group stage, when Bayern, then coached by Ottmar Hitzfeld, won 2-1 in Munich and were goalless in Glasgow. – Reuters