BATE: Club take out 10th successive Belarusian Premier League title

They are at the top of Group E, one point clear of Tuesday’s opponents.

Barca are not the only Spanish side in Champions League action on Tuesday and Valencia will hope to continue the feelgood factor in the wake of their 3-0 win at home to Malaga at the weekend when they play at home to Belgian league leaders, Gent.

Last season they let in 21 goals on their way to the league title, while after eight matches of the current term they have already conceded 11 times.

Barca B defensive midfielder Gerard Gambau is the only reserve team player to make the Champions League squad for three match-days in a row, and may get his chance with little or no option to rotate in the midfield for Luis Enrique.

Neymar and Luis Suarez have taken to leading Barcelona with Messi and Iniesta out. “To put up decent resistance” against Barcelona, “you have to start by going into this game in the same peak of form that we had against Bayern”.

Neymar warmed up for the game against the newly-crowned champions of Belarus by scoring four goals on Saturday in a 5-2 win over Rayo and will be needed once again with the injuries to Lionel Messi and Andres Iniesta, although Thomas Vermaelen is set to return. I don’t distinguish between defenders and forwards, because we attack as a team and defend as a team.

Sergi Roberto already made strides playing out of position for injured right back Dani Alves.

A 4-1 thrashing in their opening game at Bayer Leverkusen was followed up by an impressive 3-2 home win against Roma, and in their own stadium BATE have had a few decent results over the years.

The German side can also take heart from its strong performance at Camp Nou last time out, when it led Barcelona until conceding two goals in the final 10 minutes. They are without Maksim Zhavnerchik, who is out with an ankle injury and Vitali Rodionov who has problems with his knee. He could only jog lightly in Sunday’s training and is getting treatment almost round the clock.