The pressure is on FC Barcelona and coach Ernesto Valverde when they play Tottenham in the Champions League at Wembley on Wednesday.
Although Wembley has a place in Barca's folklore after they claimed their first European Cup there in 1992 and defeated Manchester United in the rebuilt stadium to win the 2011 final, the trip comes at a bad time with players out of form and Valverde seriously questioned after a poor run of performances and results.
Saturday's 1-1 draw at home to Athletic Club Bilbao was Barca's third consecutive Liga Santander without a win and followed a defeat away to bottom of the table Leganes and a 2-2 draw against Girona in the Camp Nou.
Valverde rotated his squad in all three of those games to deal with the busy fixture list with new signings and fringe players so far failing to convince, but it was his decision to leave Leo Messi and Sergio Busquets on the bench at the start of the game against Athletic which really angered fans.
Anyone who saw Messi's performances in last summer's World Cup should know that it is simply impossible for the Argentinean to play every game, but the fact is what he is so important to Barca's cause, leaving him out is a risk for the coach and by doing so Valverde left himself open to criticism.
Messi will be back in the side in London as Barca look for a result which would give them six points from their opening two group games.
Busquets will also start alongside Ivan Rakitic and Philippe Coutinho in midfield, while Valverde may have to decide whether or not he continues with Ousmane Dembele in attack or decides to play and extra midfielder, such as Arturo Vidal.
Samuel Umtiti and Sergi Roberto are both out injured, so Clement Lenglet and Nelson Semedo will partner Gerard Pique and Jordi Alba in defence.
Tottenham cannot afford to lose after conceding late goals away to Inter Milan in their first group game and will be without England midfielder Dele Ali.
However, Harry Kane looks to be returning to top form and he and Cristian Erikson, often cited as a possible Barca target, will be two of the players Barca need to beware of on what promised to be an epic night in a legendary stadium.
sturridge an extra weapon Nepales: It was a sight that just a few months ago would have been unthinkable — Liverpool a goal down in a big game, and Mohamed Salah hauled off by Jurgen Klopp.
Klopp got the goal he craved for a 1-1 draw at Chelsea on Saturday that preserved Liverpool's unbeaten Premier League start, not via Salah's immediate replacement Xherdan Shaqiri, but another late substitute, Daniel Sturridge.
A reborn Sturridge is now Liverpool's joint top scorer so far this season with four goals despite remaining behind Salah, Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane in Klopp's pecking order.
That he has remained there to be counted on at all, though, is a huge boost to Klopp's quest to both go one step further in the Champions League this season and deliver a first-ever Premier League title, 29 years after they last won the English top flight.
Sturridge has endured an injury-ravaged three years since Klopp took charge.
Farmed out to West Brom in January in a bid to refind his form and fitness, Sturridge's hamstring went again in his third game and he never scored for the Baggies as they were relegated.
"He was always a bit unlucky with injuries and stuff like that. That's how it is, timing in life is pretty important," added Klopp. "Now, the timing is perfect. We need him desperately and he is fit."
Ancelotti shuffling
Naples: Four months have passed since Carlo Ancelotti arrived in Napoli after Maurizio Sarri's departure for Chelsea with the promise of finding the missing piece in the jigsaw to end the southern Italian side's near three-decade wait for the Scudetto.
The former AC Milan and Chelsea coach's arrival was hailed by club owner Aurelio De Laurentiis as the start of a new era at San Paolo Stadium.
Under Sarri, Napoli came so close to toppling Juventus last season with a record 91 points.
Ancelotti -- with a cabinet full of trophies won in five top European leagues -- promised not "a revolution" but to add the finishing touches to give the team the final push.
But seven games into the Serie A campaign, Ancelotti's side are already six points behind Juventus who are looking even stronger then ever with Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Champions League -- which Ancelotti had promised would not play second fiddle to their Scudetto ambitions as it had done under Sarri -- has also gotten off to an uninspiring start with a goalless draw at Red Star Belgrade.
Three-time Champions League winner Ancelotti's side host Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool on Wednesday in the San Paolo needing a win from a tough Group C which also includes Paris Saint-Germain.
Last weekend's 3-1 defeat to Juventus in Turin saw Napoli's hopes of a third title and first since Diego Maradona's days back in 1990 take a knock.
"A defeat can happen, just as Juventus can lose to Napoli, we have to keep improving but I'm convinced we'll be competitive right until the end," insisted Ancelotti.
Ancelotti — whose last league crown was with Bayern Munich in 2017 —is convinced he will find the right formula to deliver the title to Napoli's long suffering fans.
"The passion and the enthusiasm of this club and these fans make it all more exciting," he said.
weapon for Dortmund
Dortmund: Jadon Sancho hopes his reputation for being a "weapon" off the bench for Borussia Dortmund will win the England Under-19 international a starting berth against Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday.
The 18-year-old wants a place in Lucien Favre's line-up after once more proving his worth on Saturday, when he helped seal a 4-2 comeback Bundesliga win at Bayer Leverkusen with two devastating assists.
He set up Marco Reus for the equaliser at the BayArena a minute after coming on, and he then sent Paco Alcacer away on a counter-attack for the second of the Spaniard's two late goals as Dortmund went top of the table.
He has appeared as a substitute in each of Dortmund's six Bundesliga outings this season, but he did start in their opening Champions League game, when they won 1-0 at Club Brugge to get off to the perfect start in Group A.
Sancho now craves a regular starting berth after providing six assists as well as one goal in the Bundesliga, although he admits he is at his best running at tiring defences as a substitute.
The English teenager's tally of six Bundesliga assists makes him the top goal provider in all of Europe's top five leagues so far this season.