UEFA Champions League: Barcelona hosts Arsenal, Inter takes on CSKA

Barcelona looks to take another step toward Champions League defense today when Arsenal visits the Nou Camp.

Actually, it may not be fair to say Arsenal without some profound qualifiers.  The Gunners will be missing five crucial starters:  Cesc Fabregas, Andrei Arshavin, Alex Song, William Gallas and (of course) Robin van Persie.

It's not that Barcelona is that much better on that front.  The Blaugrana will be missing the suspended Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique as well as Zlatan Ibrahimovic.  Yaya Touré and Andres Iniesta are injury doubts.

But while the numbers match-up, the magnitude of the injures do not.  Where you to name Arsenal's three most important players, you may name Fabregas, van Persie, and Arshavin.  With apologies to Iniesta and Ibrahimovic fans, Barcelona may have their three best players on the pitch:  Lionel Messi, Xavi Hernández and Daniel Alves.  That may be a stretch, but it does exemplify the difference in the injuries' magnitudes.

The tie moves back to the Nou Camp drawn 2-2, Barcelona with two away goals in a dominating performance last Wednesday.

Discussion of CSKA-Internazionale, after the jump.

The great thing about a Russian team being a Champions League:  early football.  Why UEFA doesn't otherwise stagger the starts come the knock-out rounds, I don't know.

CSKA is down 1-0 ahead of today's second leg and will be without Milos Krasic and Evgeni Aldonin.  In will step Alan Dzagoev and Elvir Rahimic - not a bad pair to have in reserve.

Knowing that the talent drop will not be severe, Leonid Slutsky can worry about how to break Inter down.  CSKA's strength on the flanks is mitigated by the play of Javier Zanetti and Maicon, who take the tactical advantages of CSKA'a 4-2-3-1 against Inter's 4-3-3 and render them moot.  Those fullbacks also allow Inter's strong central midfielders to clog the middle of the pitch, a strength we saw against Chelsea.

With Lucio and Thiago Motta back from suspension, Inter will be able to start the same team that got that result at Stamford Bridge.

CSKA needs a goal but perhaps as importantly can not afford to give one up.  A road goal for Inter would have the Russians chasing three, thanks to the away goal rule.  

Expect CSKA to play the match close-to-the-vest - as they did last week - and try to take advantage of an Inter mistake.  Should one not manifest, CSKA will change tacts in the second half.

But against a powerful Inter team that is adroit in the counter, expect Slutsky to keep it compact until he needs to open up.