Three things to watch in the Champions League tonight

Opportunity knocks for Celtic, but not so much for Chelsea, unless there's a highly unlikely result in the Ukraine this evening that is.

Can the Bhoys get back in town?

While there was excitement about being included in the same group as Barcelona, there wasn’t an awful lot of optimism in Glasgow when the initial draw was made for the Champions League group stages.

Nobody would have predicted taking anything from the Catalan giants, while Benfica and Spartak Moscow didn’t exactly represent the easiest away days either. Against the odds, however, the Hoops now find themselves trying to grasp their best opportunity of making the knockout stages in five years.

Neil Lennon’s men need Barcelona to do them a favour and beat or at least draw with Benfica at the Nou Camp, but that shouldn’t be too much hassle for Messi and company and after the Barca players waxed lyrical about the special atmosphere at Celtic Park earlier in the season, they’d probably be only too happy to give them a dig-out.

After what they’ve achieved in the competition so far this season, it would be a shame if Celtic didn’t go one step further and if they can pull it off it would be one of Lennon’s finest feats as Hoops boss, particularly considering the gulf in quality between domestic and European competition.

Will Chelsea fans blame Rafa if they go out of the Champions League?

It’s not exactly a secret that Chelsea fans didn’t welcome the appointment of Rafa Benitez, but the fact that he seems to be under genuine pressure only ten days after taking charge of his first game for the Blues is absolutely ludicrous.

It is what it is, however, and because of that, in the likely event (see more below) that Chelsea exit the competition this evening, it will probably be used as yet another stick to beat him with.

The jury is obviously still out on Benitez and whether he can have a similar influence on Chelsea as he did with Liverpool and Valencia (Inter not so much), but surely it's not an awful lot to ask to give him a decent amount of time to try and work his magic before dumping him on the scrapheap with all the other Abramovich rejects of the last decade or so.

Lump on a draw in the Shakhtar v Juve game

Expect all the right noises to come out of both camps ahead of Shakhtar’s clash with Juventus tonight about going all out to win the game, but we would be very surprised if there is a clear victor.

Shakhtar’s place in the last 16 is already secure and while Juventus could claim top spot with an away win, it is unlikely that they will take too many risks when a defeat is likely to result in a Europa League berth with Chelsea going through in their stead.

Forgive us for indulging in stereotypes here but if you could pick any two teams to play out a convenient stalemate, an Eastern European side and a Serie A team found guilty of corruption in the past would be very close to the top of the list and it is no surprise that the bookies haven’t even stretched to evens with their odds for a draw tonight.

And if you’re the romantic type and believe that the spirit of fair play will prevail, just look at what one of the Shakhtar players did in the competition last time out.

Fair play me arse; this one has 0-0 written all over it.

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