Nedum Onuoha
Former Manchester City defender on Sportsday

Vincent Kompany has had an incredible start to his Bayern career. There were one or two question marks about how successful he could be because, as we saw last season, he was relegated with Burnley but he's gone over there and been very, very impressive, winning some very good games, scoring a ton of goals.

I think the big test was this last weekend when they played Leverkusen, and even though it ended up in a draw, many people saw that the Bayern side, at this moment in time, are ahead of Leverkusen, who are the reigning Bundesliga champions.

Image source, Getty Images

BBC Radio 5 Live

Nigel Spink, who was part of Aston Villa’s European Cup winning team of 1982, speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live: "Just hearing the Champions League song before the game, that's going to really generate the atmosphere more and we all know what Bayern are, I watched them play at the weekend. They can play some seriously fast football and they are a very good team.

"As happened to us in ‘82, you just never know. If you’re asking me for a prediction I think our number nine will score in the 67th minute, 1-0."

There's some atmosphere in northern France as Lille host Real Madrid in the first competitive meeting between the clubs.

Teenager Brazil forward Endrick starts for the visitors.

At the age of 18 years and 73 days on the day of this game, he could be the youngest player to score in his first two Champions League appearances.

The current youngest is Karim Benzema (18 years, 281 days in 2006 with Lyon).

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Image source, Reuters

Aston Villa

Aston Villa manager Unai Emery speaking to TNT Sports: "For the supporters and for the fans, they were in 1982, more or less as well, following the Aston Villa club since then, not playing the Champions League again, they played in the year after it, but not for a long time, but competing again here to play again in the Champions League, it's an exciting moment but as a club, as players, as coaches, we want to try and keep it for a long time again, playing in Europe like we did last year and of course, today is the first match at home in the Champions League but I always try to face this competition more-a-less in showing our good performances and our capacity to be here and compete here."

Sam Harris
BBC Sport at Villa Park

McKenzie and Oscar sat outside the ground to soak in the atmosphere but they couldn’t get tickets because it’s sold out!

Juventus come into this game on the back of a remarkable defensive record.

They have only conceded one goal so far this season, Ismael Saibari's injury-time consolation in their 3-1 win over PSV in the first Champions League game.

The Turin side have not conceded a league goal this season, the only team in Europe's top 16 ranked leagues who can say that

Leipzig, themselves, have only conceded two Bundesliga goals so far - although they lost their Champions League opener to Atletico Madrid.

Atletico Madrid will go into this one without key defender Robin Le Normand.

He has been diagnosed with a "traumatic brain injury" after a collision late on in Sunday's Madrid derby.

The defender, who helped Spain beat England in the Euro 2024 final, has played all but one of Atletico's games this season having signed from Real Sociedad in the summer.

Both sides won 2-1 in their opening league phase games. Benfica held on to beat Red Star Belgrade while Atletico came from behind to beat Leipzig, scoring in the last minute.

This could be a tight one as Benfica haven't lost since the first game of the Portuguese league season, scoring 14 goals in their last four games across all competitions.

BBC Sport examines how the allure of Real Madrid has enabled them to assemble a new team of young "Galacticos", as the Champions League holders aim to win a record-extending 16th European crown.

Lille and Real Madrid meet in a competitive game for the first time.

Real boss Carlo Ancelotti said: "In this new format, we have to score points and we're here to do that, considering the quality of our opponents, who play very well and have quality young players.

"As always, in every game now we have to fight, battle and compete. We're feeling good, we're confident that we can improve and we're ready for it.

"We want to be at our best at a time of the season with a lot of games, but I think the team looks pretty good. We'll be back to our best very soon."

Real come into the game on the back of a very heated 1-1 derby draw with Atletico, while Lille won 3-0 at Le Havre to end a five-game winless run.

This is the second game of Nenad Bjelica's second spell in charge of Dinamo Zagreb.

He led them to 73 wins in 101 games plus two league titles at a Croatian cup between May 2018 and April 2020.

Bjelica is back in charge because Sergej Jakirovic was sacked after their 9-2 thrashing by Bayern Munich in their Champions League opener.

Monaco have not lost a game this season and beat Barcelona 2-1 in their first European tie.

Boss Adi Hutter said: "Dinamo have changed their coach, bringing a different mentality. This will be a completely different game [to the win over Barcelona].

"Dinamo have a quality team."

BBC Radio 5 Live

Image source, PA Media

John Murray and Chris Sutton will be on hand to bring you all the latest updates from Villa Park this evening as Unai Emery's side host German giants Bayern Munich.

Alex Bysouth
BBC Sport

Sturm Graz's Austrian Bundesliga title in May was their first in 13 years and they are back in the Champions League group phase this season for the first time since 2000-01, where they host Club Brugge on Wednesday.

It comes after the club made a conscious decision to follow a "new path" when they appointed sporting director Andreas Schicker in 2020.

Sturm ended the dominance of Red Bull Salzburg, a club who won 10 successive Austrian Bundesliga titles before Sturm's league and cup double last season and who have made 24 of the 25 most-expensive transfers in the league's history.

"I think in no other European league the financial gap between one club and the others is so big as in Austria," adds Schicker.

"Of course, Salzburg has Red Bull as a sponsor but also earned this with great work. But I think we showed in the last year what is possible also with lower means."

Read more here.

In recent years, the group stage was set up with 32 teams in eight groups of four - with the top two sides from those groups qualifying for the last 16.

However, from this season the expanded 36-team tournament sees each side play eight different teams - four at home and four away - in a league phase.

Teams who finish in the top eight will qualify automatically for the last 16, while those who place ninth to 24th will compete in a two-legged knockout play-off for the chance to join them.

Whoever finishes 25th or lower will be eliminated, and will not be entered into the Europa League.

According to Opta, 16 points from a possible 24 gives a 98% chance of a top eight finish, while 15 points is 73%.

Opta says 10 points is 99% likely to lead to a top 24 finish, while nine would be 69%.

Phil McNulty
BBC Sport chief football writer at Villa Park

Image source, Reuters

Aston Villa and their fans have waited 41 years for this night, since they lost as holders to Juventus in the quarter final in 1983.

And the sense of anticipation around the famous old stadium huge. Fans were gathering hours before kick-off and the volume levels are rising as kick-off time approaches.

Big noise around Villa Park.

Michael Emons
BBC Sport at Anfield

The Bologna fans have been in position, packing out the away end of Anfield since 6pm and they have been in great voice, for what promises to be a brilliant atmosphere.

To celebrate qualifying for the competition, and to mark the historic occasion, choirs across the Midlands have been singing the iconic Champions League theme.

They told BBC Midlands Today's David Lumb what Villa's achievement meant to them.

Liverpool

Liverpool boss Arne Slot speaking to TNT Sports about the Champions League atmosphere at Anfield: "Let's wait and see. I first have to go out, only focused on preparing the team in the best possible way. Now if I go out I hopefully experience a different atmosphere, that's what everyone's been telling me.”

Michael Emons
BBC Sport at Anfield

Image source, Michael Emons

Bologna fans will be looking to enjoy every second of their European campaign, as they don’t come around often.

A fifth-place spot in Serie A, their highest finish since 1970-71, saw them scrape into the Champions League, benefitting from Italian teams performing well in continental competitions to get one of the additional two spots that were on offer in the revamped format.

Bologna last played in the main stages of Europe in 1999-2000, losing in the last 32 of the Uefa Cup, and they have only been in Europe’s premier competition once before. But it ended in farce as they were eliminated on the toss of a coin in the preliminary round of the 1964-65 European Cup after they could not be separated following three matches with Anderlecht.

Liverpool would have been their next opponents that year, but Bologna finally get their Anfield date.

However, this is a Bologna side in transition and 13th in Serie A. Head coach Thiago Motta joined Juventus in the summer and his replacement Vincenzo Italiano has only won one of his first seven matches, although five of them have ended in draws.

Last season’s top scorer Joshua Zirkzee is now at Manchester United and key defender Riccardo Calafiori now plays for Arsenal, while club captain and Scotland midfielder Lewis Ferguson has not featured since suffering a cruciate ligament injury in April.

Image source, Michael Emons

Image source, Getty Images

Liverpool are back in the Champions League and Mohammed Salah has the chance to close in on a landmark in the competition.

The Egypt forward is two goals away from 50, having scored 48 in 90 Champions League appearances [including qualifying rounds] for Basel, AS Roma and Liverpool.

Mike Taylor
BBC WM commentator at Villa Park

A bright new mural on the wall along Trinity Road spells out the code to every Villa fan’s heart: simply, ‘1982’, in ten-foot high digits, with the image of the trophy Dennis Mortimer lifted in Rotterdam.

That achievement towers above everything various generations of Villa players have achieved since then - and though there have been some fine teams and special days, the current version of Villa, assembled at speed by Unai Emery, looks to be the strongest since.

This game is the biggest test of this group to date. Emery noted yesterday, in terms, that Villa do play teams of this standard - among the best in Europe - fairly regularly in the Premier League, and that any of the other English teams in the competition would be among the likely winners.

He modestly declined to add that Villa have several times proved themselves a match for those top sides since he took over.