Barcelona will look to maintain their 100% start in the Champions League when they welcome Ukrainian giants Dynamo Kiev to Camp Nou on Wednesday evening.
However, the Catalan giants have struggled in the league and stretched their winless run to four matches with a draw at Alaves on Saturday.
Match preview
Barcelona would have been expected to follow up their impressive away victory at Juventus with a dominant performance against Alavaes in the top flight, but it did not pan out that way for Ronald Koeman's men on Halloween.
La Blaugrana went behind to a Luis Rioja goal following a mistake by goalkeeper Neto, but having had Jota sent off for a second bookable offence, the 10 men of Alaves were unable to hold on for a memorable win as Antoine Griezmann calmly finished to level the scores just after the hour mark.
While the seemingly never-ending drama behind the scenes is sure to affect Koeman's players in some shape or form, Barca have nonetheless asserted their dominance in the Champions League despite their underwhelming domestic form, and the Catalan powerhouses will feel confident of recording a trio of victories in Europe this week.
Indeed, Koeman's men followed up their 5-1 drubbing of Ferencvaros with a 2-0 victory at the home of Serie A champions Juventus last week, and Barca will now aim to stretch their unbeaten run in the Champions League group stage to 23 matches, but Dynamo Kiev are a side in strong form domestically and are certainly not to be taken lightly.
Dynamo Kiev have stormed to the top of the rankings in the Ukrainian Premier League as one of only two sides yet to taste defeat this season - the other being Shakhtar Donestk - but Mircea Lucescu's men are still waiting for their first three points in the group stages of the Champions League.
The Ukrainian powerhouses were comfortably swept aside by Juventus in their opening group stage match and shared the spoils with Ferencvaros in a four-goal thriller last week, with Franck Boli scoring a last-gasp equaliser for the Hungarian outfit to deny Lucescu's men all three points.
Occupying a group with Barcelona and Juventus does not bode well for Dynamo Kiev's chances of advancing to the knockout stages - a feat which they have only managed to achieve once since the turn of the millennium - and a third consecutive spell in the Europa League could be on the cards unless Lucescu's men can defy the odds and pip one of the European giants to second spot.
However, Dynamo Kiev are now facing a side who they have only beaten three times in 10 previous meetings, with Barcelona recording 2-0 and 2-1 victories when the two teams last battled it out in the group stage of the 2009-10 edition.
Barcelona Champions League form: WW
Barcelona form (all competitions): DLWLWD
Dynamo Kiev Champions League form: WWWLD
Dynamo Kiev form (all competitions): DWLWDW
Team News
Barca will hope to welcome Marc-Andre ter Stegen back to the fold as soon as possible following Neto's howler at the weekend, but the German shot-stopper is not expected to play a part just yet.
The Catalan giants will also be without Samuel Umtiti, Philippe Coutinho and Ronald Araujo for matchday three, with Gerard Pique making a timely return from suspension to partner Clement Lenglet in defence.
Koeman will hope to wrap up the group as quickly as possible but is expected to shuffle the pack either way, with Trincao, Pedri and Sergino Dest all potentially coming in to the first XI.
Dynamo Kiev have a number of absentees to contend with themselves, with Sergiy Sydorchuk suspended after being given his marching orders in the draw with Ferencvaros.
Artem Besedin is serving a ban of his own for doping offences, while 18-year-old Ruslan Neshcheret is set to start in goal at Camp Nou with Denys Boyko and Georgiy Bushchan both testing positive for coronavirus.
The visitors have also confirmed that Vitaly Mykolenko, Denis Garmash, Oleksandr Karaev, Tudor Baluta, Mykola Shaparenko, Mikkel Duelund and Georgiy Tsitaish have all contracted the virus as well, leaving Lucescu with plenty of selection headaches for the trip to Catalonia.
Barcelona possible starting lineup:
Neto; Dest, Pique, Lenglet, Alba; Pjanic, De Jong; Trincao, Messi, Pedri; Griezmann
Dynamo Kiev possible starting lineup:
Neshcheret; Kedziora, Popov, Shabanov, Zabarnyi; Shepelev, Andriyevskyi; Tsygankov, Lednev, Verbic; Supryaga
We say: Barcelona 4-0 Dynamo Kiev
Dynamo Kiev will be forced into a reshuffle following their coronavirus cluster, and 18-year-old Neshcheret is sure to be nervous at the prospect of facing Messi and co at the home of the Catalan powerhouses. Despite their domestic woes, Barca are steamrolling their way through the group and we are backing Koeman's men to record an emphatic victory on Wednesday evening.
Top betting tip
Our expert tipster partners at Sporita.com are predicting over 2.5 goals in this match. Click here to find out what else they are predicting for this game and for more of their tried-and-tested football tips.Over 2.5:databody check tags ::
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