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Tottenham's Wembley 'curse' and Zidane aims to make history - Champions League in Opta numbers

Zinedine Zidane is aiming to become the first manager to win the Champions League for the third year in succession.

Real Madrid manager Zinedine Zidane poses with the Champions League trophy

London, September 12: Tottenham will aim to tackle their supposed Wembley curse as the Champions League continues on Wednesday (September 13), with Real Madrid seeking to win the tournament for the third year in a row.

No manager has won the Champions League three times in succession so Zinedine Zidane will be out to make history, and has the competition's record goalscorer Cristiano Ronaldo available despite serving a domestic ban.

Elsewhere, RB Leipzig will make their Champions League bow against last season's semi-finalists Monaco, the Ligue 1 champions shorn of many of the stars who fired them to glory in France last year.

Premier League sides Liverpool and Manchester City also get up and running with their first group games on Wednesday and here we examine the upcoming schedule with the help of Opta facts.

TOTTENHAM v BORUSSIA DORTMUND

- Tottenham and Dortmund's only previous encounter was in the round of 16 of the 2015-16 Europa League. The German side won 5-1 on aggregate. - Spurs have won only two of their last nine Champions League games (D2 L5). They've also won only one of their three games at Wembley in the competition (L2).

LIVERPOOL v SEVILLA

- Liverpool and Sevilla's only previous encounter came in the final of the 2016 Europa League. Sevilla won 3-1. - Only Marco Verratti (479) completed more passes than Sevilla midfielder Steven N'Zonzi (459) in last season's Champions League group stages.

REAL MADRID v APOEL NICOSIA

- Real Madrid and APOEL Nicosia's only previous encounter was in the quarter-finals of the 2011-12 Champions League. Madrid won 8-2 on aggregate. - Despite having only managed 20 games in the Champions League, Zinedine Zidane has already won the title twice (2016, 2017). No manager has won the European Cup/Champions League in three consecutive seasons.

FEYENOORD v MANCHESTER CITY

- None of Manchester City's 36 Champions League group games have ended goalless. They have also only kept five clean sheets in those 36 matches. - Sergio Aguero has scored in only two of his last 12 Champions League games (five goals). He is nevertheless Manchester City's top scorer in the competition (22 goals in 40 games).

RB LEIPZIG v MONACO

- This is the first game in European competition for RB Leipzig, and therefore their first encounter with Monaco. - Radamel Falcao has scored nine goals in his 15 Champions League starts. This will only be the 31-year-old's third campaign in the competition after 2009-10 with Porto and last season with Monaco.

SHAKHTAR DONETSK v NAPOLI

- Dries Mertens has been directly involved in seven of Napoli's last 10 Champions League goals (five goals, two assists). - Shakhtar Donetsk have won only one of their last 10 Champions League games (D2 L7), a 4-0 home win against Malmo in November 2015.

MARIBOR v SPARTAK MOSCOW

- Spartak Moscow have reached the knockout stages of the Champions League only once in their 11 previous appearances - in 1995-96 when they were quarter-finalists. - Maribor striker Marcos Tavares scored four of his team's seven goals in this season's Champions League qualifiers.

PORTO v BESIKTAS

- Porto have made it to the Champions League group stages for the 22nd time, which equals the record held by Barcelona and Real Madrid. - This is Besiktas' seventh Champions League group stage participation and the first time they have reached it in consecutive campaigns. They have never reached the knockout stages.

Source: OPTA

Story first published: Tuesday, September 12, 2017, 22:19 [IST]
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