Chelsea

Chelsea coach Thomas Tuchel on his decision to drop goalkeeper Edouard Mendy: "First of all, the most important thing is that Kepa deserves for a long time to play. We have two goalkeepers who compete at the highest level. It's a new competition so it is maybe a good moment for Edou to take a breath. He was a bit unlucky in the last games, not even bad but unlucky.

"On top of it, Edou has some problems with the patella tendon. He’s not 100% fit at the moment, so we took a chance.

On what Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang adds to Chelsea: "He adds speed, he adds work-rate. It’s not about what we did not have and what he brings. It's also about numbers. We need width in the team. We need deep quality and Auba is a quality player."

Dinamo Zagreb are the first club to face five different London teams in Europe.

They have previously faced Arsenal, Fulham, Tottenham and West Ham.

Dinamo Zagreb have won the Croatian title for five years in a row - and they are unbeaten in eight league games this season.

This is the first time Chelsea have a team from Croatia.

"Dinamo are used to winning and that shapes a certain mentality," said Blues boss Thomas Tuchel.

"They deserve to be here and will play a very technical, emotional game against us. That's always difficult."

Joe Cole
Ex-Chelsea and England midfielder, speaking on BT Sport 4

Aubameyang is an outstanding player. When you're looking for a short-term option, he was the name that jumped out. He does everything Chelsea needs - he gets on the shoulder, he's a finisher, he's a proven goal scorer. It’s a great bit of business.

Quiz

Can you name the 20 players to score the most goals in the competition since it was rebranded from the European Cup 30 years ago?

Take the quiz here.

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Things did not go smoothly during Lionel Messi, Neymar and Kylian Mbappe's first season together in Paris.

Mauricio Pochettino's tactical set-up was seen a major contributor to this, with a reluctance to deviate from a 4-3-3 system, leaving Messi and Neymar in the wide forward roles - not ideal for players lacking explosive page at this stage of their careers.

Messi, Neymar and Mbappe have made an explosive start to the new campaign, with 32 goals and assists between them already this season, as they relish new coach Christophe Galtier's 3-4-3 formation.

Read more here.

According to data specialists Nielsen Gracenote, Real Madrid are favourites to win this season's Champions League.

Gracenote's Euro Club Index simulations give Real a 21% chance of lifting the trophy next May. Manchester City (20%), Liverpool (19%) and Bayern Munich (10%) are the other main contenders.

There is a 60% chance of Manchester City or one of last season's two finalists, Real Madrid and Liverpool, winning this season's competition.

Dinamo Zagreb coach Ante Cacic: "I don't feel any pressure, I did my job by reaching the group stage. This is a celebration for us. Big clubs are coming to play us. We have a duty to be ourselves and take our chances.

"We are playing a match that we really wanted to play. It's our reward for winning the title. This is a great pleasure for us and I'm sure that we will all benefit from this competition, players and fans.

"We are not the favourites in any game, but in every game we will look for our chance. This is not a knockout game: we have to look forward to it and learn from it.”

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Chelsea are one of only two English teams to win the Champions League since 2008.

The Blues won in 2012 and 2021, with Liverpool lifting it in 2019.

A couple of nuggets of interesting team news from Germany.

Borussia Dortmund goalkeeper Alexander Meyer makes his Champions League debut before he has ever played a top-flight game.

The 31-year-old is a summer signing from second tier Jahn Regensburg.

He is not the oldest Champions League debutant in Dortmund's team though... Anthony Modeste is 34.

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Shakhtar Donetsk become the first Ukrainian team to play in the Champions League group stages since Russia invaded their country in February.

They visit German side Leipzig.

Shakhtar will play their European 'home' games at Legia Warsaw's Stadion Wojska Polskiego in Poland.

Unlike previous years when they were full of Brazilians, their team is largely comprised of local players now.

Dynamo Kyiv went out in the Champions League qualifiers, where they also played their games in Poland.

The BBC Radio 5 Live game tonight is Celtic v Real Madrid but Limerick's finest Conor McNamara will be chipping in with updates from Sevilla v Manchester City.

Quiz

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As the Champions League group stage begins, the Question of Sport team have put together a quiz to test your knowledge.

Who has managed the most games in the competition? What was memorable about Celestine Babayaro's debut?

Take our quiz and see how much you know about Europe's biggest club tournament.

This is Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang's first Champions League game since 2017 when he was at Borussia Dortmund.

He only played in the Europa League with Arsenal and Barcelona.

Initial reports had suggested Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang might be out for a few weeks with that jaw injury.

But he makes an early debut for Chelsea.

The 33-year-old has only played for eight minutes this season and boss Thomas Tuchel said he "needs minutes to get his full fitness and rhythm".

But the boss added he won't able to play the whole 90 minutes.

Chelsea

Chelsea boss Thomas Tuchel shuffles the pack after Saturday's fortuitous 2-1 Premier League win against West Ham and there are some surprises in the line-up.

Striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang makes his debut after signing from Barcelona on deadline day.

The ex-Arsenal captain will play in a mask after suffering a jaw injury during a violent robbery at his home last week.

Meanwhile, number one Edouard Mendy has been dropped to the bench after a shaky start to the season, with Kepa Arrizabalaga coming in.

Cesar Azpilicueta, Ben Chilwell, Mason Mount and Kai Havertz all start, with Thiago Silva, Marc Cucurella, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic dropping out.

Big money signing Wesley Fofana makes his first ever appearance in the Champions League.

Chelsea XI: Arrizabalaga, James, Fofana, Azpilicueta, Koulibaly, Chilwell, Kovacic, Mount, Havertz, Sterling, Aubameyang.

There are eight Champions League games tonight, with Chelsea, Manchester City and Celtic all in action.

We will be focussing on the English teams here, with updates from all the other matches too, while our Scottish colleagues will have a dedicated Celtic v Real Madrid live text later.

• Borussia Dortmund v Copenhagen - 17:45
• Dinamo Zagreb v Chelsea - 17:45
• Benfica v Maccabi Haifa - 20:00
• Paris St-Germain v Juventus - 20:00
• Sevilla v Manchester City - 20:00
• Celtic v Real Madrid - 20:00
• Leipzig v Shakhtar Donetsk - 20:00
• Salzburg v Milan - 20:00

All times BST

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The Champions League is back.

Europe's top teams going head to head in a tournament that has delivered time and time and time again.

Six British teams are in this year's group stages - with three in action tonight.

Let's get under way.