Key events
It’s chaos o’clock. Lights, whistles, action.
All across the continent, teams take to the field. There are muscles to be stretched, corporate anthems politely listened to, hands shaken, coins tossed, pennants swapped, whistles sounded, hopes realised and dreams shattered. We’ll be off in a couple of minutes. “With apologies to Elfsborg, I think Spurs could start to turn things around if they beat their opponents tonight. But given their form, that is a big IF.” Peter Oh, ladies and gentlemen. He’s here all week. Try the smörgåsbord.
Jeopardy Corner. There’s not a lot of it about. Lazio are the only team to have already guaranteed their place in the last 16. Manchester United and Tottenham can both join them in giving the play-offs the bodyswerve: wins tonight will make sure of their last-16 spot; draws may be enough. Like United and Spurs, Rangers are at least certain of making the play-off round; a win may be enough for a top-right spot, but they’d need quite a few results elsewhere to go their way. But there are some continental behemoths in serious peril: Ajax, Real Sociedad and Roma are not too far above the 24th-placed cut-off line, while Porto are just under it.
Here’s how the mega-table looks going into the final matchday of the league phase. There are 36 clubs playing 18 fixtures to determine which eight qualify automatically for the Round of 16 and which 16 go into the play-off round. Enjoy, enjoy.
FCSB v MUFC team news
FCSB (or Steaua Bucharest in the old money): Tarnovanu, Mihai Popescu, Ngezana, Dawa, Cretu, Edjouma, Sut, Radunovic, Tanase, Birligea, Miculescu.
Subs: Udrea, Stefanescu, Daniel Popa, Chiriches, Toma, Baluta, Pantea, Musi, Alhassan.
Manchester United: Bayindir, Mazraoui, De Ligt, Martinez, Dalot, Collyer, Mainoo, Malacia, Eriksen, Fernandes, Hojlund.
Subs: Heaton, Onana, Lindelof, Maguire, Zirkzee, Yoro, Diallo, Garnacho, Casemiro, Ugarte.
There’s a proper pukka MBM for this one: let Michael Butler be your guide. We recommend a two-window / two-tab system so you don’t have to choose! Toggle away between us like billy-o.
Tottenham v Elfsborg team news
Tottenham Hotspur: Austin, Porro, Van de Ven, Davies, Gray, Bergvall, Bentancur, Sarr, Moore, Richarlison, Son.
Subs: Forster, Whiteman, Cassanova, Dragusin, Hardy, Bissouma, Olusesi, Kyerematen, Ajayi, Kulusevski, Scarlett, Lankshear.
Elfsborg: Petterson, Holmen, Henriksson, Yegbe, Hedlund, B Zeneli, Thomasen, Hult, Rapp, Abdullai, Qasem.
Subs: Uppenberg, Sorensen, Aronsson, A Zeneli, Gudmundsson, Holten, Larsson, Frick, Kaib, Richtner, Ostman, Ibrahim.
Tottenham have made three changes to their starting XI in the wake of the 2-1 home loss to Leicester. Brandon Austin replaces Antonín Kinský – who along with Djed Spence, Sergio Reguilon and Yang Min-Hyeok, is ineligible – while 17-year-old Mikey Moore gets a runout up front and Micky van de Ven returns from injury. Radu Drăgușin and Dejan Kulusevski drop to the bench.
Rangers v Union Saint Gilloise team news
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, King, Propper, Jefte, Cerny, Raskin, Diomande, Bajrami, Dessers, Igamane.
Subs: Kelly, Hutton, Nsio, Curtis, Lovelace, Rice, McCausland, Lawrence, Souttar, Munn.
Union Saint Gilloise: Moris, Khalaili, Mac Allister, Sykes, Leysen, Sadiki, Van De Perre, Vanhoutte, Fuseini, Ivanovic, Niang.
Subs: Berradi, Asri, Rodriguez, Ait El Hadj, Rasmussen, Chambaere, Imbrechts.
Rangers make two changes to their starting XI after the 3-1 Scottish Premiership victory at Dundee United. Václav Černý and Leon King step up; Ianis Hagi and Clinton Nsiala miss out altogether.
Preamble
We ride again. Just in case last night’s Champions League chaos wasn’t enough to whet your appetite for widespread disorder, here’s what’s happening in the Europa League this evening …
Ajax v Galatasaray
Anderlecht v Hoffenheim
Athletic Bilbao v Plzen
Braga v Lazio
Dynamo Kiev v Rigas FS
FCSB v Man Utd
Ferencvaros v AZ
Lyon v Ludogorets
Maccabi Tel-Aviv v FC Porto
Midtjylland v Fenerbahce
Nice v Bodo/Glimt
Olympiacos v Qarabag FK
Rangers v Union Saint Gilloise
Real Sociedad v PAOK
Roma v Eintracht Frankfurt
Slavia Prague v Malmo FF
Tottenham Hotspur v IF Elfsborg
Twente v Besiktas
It all gets going at 8pm GMT. Loss of thread, narrative, news, concentration, perspective, balance, will to live, etc., begins at 8.01pm, but hey, we’ll do our best to power on through. It’s on!
