Champs League kicks off

Tonight the UEFA Champions League kicks off for Matchday 1. The race to the final, in Moscow, on the 21st May 2008 begins here. Liverpool, Chelsea and Celtic all get their Champions League campaigns underway and Milan start their defence of the trophy against Benfica.

Porto - Liverpool

Liverpool's tough trip to Porto will cast memories back to when the two sides first met once in Europe with Liverpool beating Porto 2-0 on aggregate in the 2001 Uefa Cup. However, Porto have an impressive record against English sides and may be hopeful of utilising home advantage. Liverpool will miss Riise and Sissoko, while Xabi Alonso may also miss out. Porto will be without ex-Tottenham striker Postiga who has a knee injury.

Chelsea - Rosenborg

Chelsea will be eager to get their season on track against the Norweigan side Rosenborg. Lampard, Drogba, Ballack and Carvalho are all likely to miss the game, and Shevchenko and Pizarro are likely to play some part. Chelsea have kept eight clean sheets in the last 11 home CL matches and tonight's game will be a huge confidence boost if they can defeat Rosenborg.

Milan - Benfica

Maldini, Ronaldo, Oddo and Pirlo could all miss the game; whilst the Milan side welcome back Kaka, Filippo Inzaghi and Massimo Ambrosini after being rested against Siena. Jose Camacho's Benfica also have injury worries, Luisao (knee), David Luiz (foot), Petit and Marc Zoro (thigh) are all missing.

FULL FIXTURE LIST

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A Marseille 20:45 Besiktas

A Porto 20:45 Liverpool

B Chelsea 20:45 Rosenborg

B Schalke 20:45 Valencia

C Real Madrid 20:45 Bremen

C Olympiacos 20:45 Lazio

D Milan 20:45 Benfica

D Shakhtar 20:45 Celtic