Leverkusen miss Nowotny

Bayer Leverkusen have to overcome a poor start to their Bundesliga season as they prepare to start their Champions' League campaign against Olympiakos in Group F, Manchester United's group, tonight.

Klaus Toppmoller's side, who last season finished as runners-up in the European Cup final, the Bundesliga and the German Cup, have collected just one win in five games so far and consecutive home defeats to Bochum and Hanover have seen them slip to 13th in the table. They are suffering from a large number of injuries and are missing their Germany international Jens Nowotny, the Argentinian Diego Placente, the Brazilian Juan, Zoltan Sebescen and Christoph Preuss, Ulf Kirsten and Dimitar Berbatov.

Toppmoller's opposite number, Takis Lemonis, is much better off. The Piraeus side are only missing the young Greece striker Labros Choutos, who has a knee injury.

Feyenoord are likely to be without their inspirational captain, Paul Bosvelt, for the Champions' League game against Juventus in Group E, Newcastle's group, after the player's father died last weekend.

"Paul has got to decide for himself if he will play, but I do not expect him to play," said the Dutch team's coach, Bert van Marwijk. "When something like that happens to you, then soccer is unimportant."

If Feyenoord are looking for a psychological advantage they could do worse than turn to their South Korea international Chung-gug Song. The right-sided midfielder was on the pitch on one of the most infamous nights for Italian football when they were knocked out of the World Cup by the South Koreans.

The Juventus coach, Marcello Lippi, will have to do without Antonio Conte, Gianluca Pessotto and Gianluca Zambrotta because of injury while Igor Tudor is also doubtful.

Louis Van Gaal's Barcelona take on Club Bruges in Group H determined to make an impact. Following an ignominious exit at the hands of Novelda in the King's Cup at home, Barça rediscovered some form last weekend as they beat Athletic Bilbao 2-0.

Van Gaal has called up the same players who beat Bilbao on Saturday, with the exception of the goalkeeper Robert Enke who is replaced by Roberto Bonano because of illness.

The Deportivo la Coruña coach, Javier Irureta, has a batch of injuries against Bayern Munich away from home in Group G tonight. Irureta has been forced to include the youngsters Javi and Antonio in his squad because of injuries.

Bayern's influential midfielder Michael Ballack is a doubt as he struggles to overcome an ankle injury. Ballack is expected to play, but if he fails to recover then either Owen Hargreaves or Thorsten Fink are ready-made replacements.

In Group G, Lens, rank outsiders, go into their visit to Milan on the back of a domestic 1-0 victory over Rennes on Saturday. They will be at full strength with the exception of the suspended defender Cyril Rool.

The key question for the Milan coach, Carlo Ancelotti, will be whether to play Rivaldo from the start after the striker scored one of his side's three goals against Modena last weekend after coming on as a second-half substitute. Andrei Shevchenko misses out with a knee injury but Filippo Inzaghi should be in the squad despite a foot problem.