Barcelona will have to cope without superstar winger Lamine Yamal for a trip to Newcastle in the Champions League on Thursday, when there’s a sooner-than-expected return to Manchester City for Kevin De Bruyne.
The final batch of matches from the first round of the league stage also sees Kairat, a tournament newcomer from Almaty in Kazakhstan, visit Sporting Lisbon after a trek across three time zones and more than 6,500 kilometers (4,000 miles).
Some star power will be missing at St. James’ Park because the 18-year-old Yamal will not appear for Barca because of an injury the team said the Spain winger sustained on international duty last week.
Yamal, the heir to Lionel Messi at Barcelona, is key to the team’s chances of becoming European champion for the first time since 2015 so his absence is a big boost for Newcastle, which is starting the second Champions League campaign under its Saudi Arabian ownership. In the 2023-24 season, Newcastle finished bottom of its group in the old format.
De Bruyne bade an emotional farewell to City in May after a 10-year stint during which he established himself as arguably the club’s greatest ever player.
Four months later, the Belgium midfielder is back at Etihad Stadium — but in a jersey of new team Napoli and will look to consign City to another slow start to the Champions League.
Last season, Pep Guardiola’s team was held to an opening 0-0 by another Italian club, Inter Milan, and went on to scrape into the playoff round, where it lost to Real Madrid. City looks in slightly better shape a year on, with Norway striker Erling Haaland having netted 11 goals in six matches for club and country this season and looking to add to his 49 goals in 48 Champions League appearances.
In other games, Eintracht Frankfurt hosts a Galatasaray team that has won all five of its games in the Turkish league, Bayer Leverkusen — under new coach in Kasper Hjulmand — travels to FC Copenhagen, and Club Brugge hosts Monaco.
___
AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer
