Barcelona v Feyenoord prediction: Champions League preview, lineups & tips

Matchday one of the newly expanded Champions League league phase always throws up a handful of lopsided fixtures, and this is about as lopsided as they come.

Barcelona open their campaign at Camp Nou against a Feyenoord side making the long trip south with little expectation attached to it.

The bookmakers have priced this one so heavily in the hosts' favour that the more interesting questions on the night are about the margin, not the outcome.

For Feyenoord, simply avoiding a heavy defeat and taking something from the trip into their remaining league phase fixtures would count as a job well done.

Barcelona arrive at this fixture as one of the sides expected to be competing at the sharp end of the competition again this season, with a squad that reads like a who's who of La Liga's brightest talent, Lamine Yamal and Pedri included.

There is no earlier league phase form to point to here, this is matchday one for both clubs, so there are no recent European wins or scares to draw on before kick-off.

Feyenoord return to the competition as Eredivisie representatives, and this trip to Camp Nou is their first taste of the new league phase format, with the shape of their season still to be defined by how they cope with nights like this one.

There is little scope for wholesale rotation from Barcelona given this is the opening fixture of the league phase and the squad will want to start on the front foot.

However, changes have effectively been forced on the back line regardless, with a suspension and a couple of knocks thinning out the options at centre-back and in midfield.

For Feyenoord there is less incentive to protect legs so early in the season either, and the visitors are likely to send out their strongest available XI given how few certainties they will have of picking up points elsewhere in the group.

Kick-off at Camp Nou is at 17:45 BST on Wednesday 9 September.

A UK broadcaster for this fixture has not been confirmed at the time of writing, so check back closer to kick-off for details of where to watch.

This is a league phase fixture rather than a knockout tie, so there is no extra-time or penalties to worry about, a draw simply stands as a draw in the table.