Real pressure for Madrid

Real Madrid CF, RC Deportivo La Coruña and FC Basel go into their UEFA Champions League second group stage matches tonight knowing defeat could leave them scrambling to stay in European football's premier competition.

Bottom spot
Defending champions Madrid, who face BV Borussia Dortmund in Group C, have gone six consecutive Champions League matches without a win and the pressure is right on coach Vicente del Bosque's star-studded side, whose last European victory was back in September, a 6-0 victory against KRC Genk. In the second group stage a 1-0 loss to AC Milan and a 2-2 home draw with FC Lokomotiv Moskva has left the Spanish giants propping up the mini table.

Madrid profligacy
Dortmund lie in second place behind runaway leaders Milan with three points after a 2-1 triumph over Lokomotiv and a 1-0 reverse against the in-form Italian side. Coach Mattias Sammer is optimistic, claiming that his side can win because Madrid waste chances.

Shevchenko out
In the other Group C encounter, Milan will look to maintain their 100 per cent Group C record at the San Siro despite the absence of striker Andriy Shevchenko with a thigh injury. Having beaten Madrid and Dortmund they are clear favourites to top the group. Lokomotiv have not played a competitive game since their 2-2 draw in Madrid in December.

Poor starts
Deportivo and Basel are both up against it in Group D at Saint Jakob Park. The Swiss team, who impressed in the first phase, have leaked seven goals to Manchester United FC and Juventus FC in losing their first two matches; while the Galician side have only one point to show for their opening encounters, a 2-2 draw at home to Juventus and a 2-0 defeat by Sir Alex Ferguson's charges.

Depleted Juve
Finally, group leaders United take on Juventus, who unsuccessfully appealed to UEFA to postpone the match earlier today after a flu epidemic ravaged the squad and left coach Marcello Lippi with just 15 fit players. Goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon, Marco Di Vaio, Gianluca Zambrotta, Marcelo Salas, Alessandro Birindelli, Mark Iuliano and Igor Tudor are all out. Furthermore, the English side are the competition's leading scorers with 21 goals in eight matches so Juve face an uphill task.

Match centres
uefa.com is the only place to be for live coverage of all eight games tonight. You can follow every kick of the ball on Tuesday and Wednesday in our unique match centres, which combine live text commentary and live statistics. We will also provide in-depth match reports and quotes from the post-match press conferences, as well as authoritative reviews putting the action in context.

Eight languages
Matches will be covered in eight languages - English, French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese, Russian and Japanese - allowing fans around the world to keep informed in the language of their choice. And do not forget that uefa.com is the only website to bring you highlights of every Champions League encounter on the night of the game. uefa.com also offers live audio match commentary of all eight ties via our match pass service as well as match analysis on our Champions League panel show.