Overview
Red Star Belgrade are still proving that they are the number one club in Serbia, having won 12 of their first 13 domestic matches and are comfortably at the top of the table, 10 points ahead of second-placed Belgrade.
However, when entering the Champions League arena, coach Vladan Milojevic's team was just a "underdog" team. That was shown through their record of 3 consecutive losses and conceding a total of 11 goals.
Therefore, it is very difficult for Red Star Belgrade to stop Barcelona, who are in impressive form at the moment. In the most recent match, coach Hansi Flick's team did not spend too much effort to defeat Espanyol 3-1 in the Catalunya derby. This victory helped them extend their winning streak in all competitions to 6. This includes impressive victories such as 4-1 against Bayern Munich or 4-0 against Real Madrid.
After the first 12 rounds of La Liga 2024-2025, Blaugrana has scored 40 goals (an average of 3.3 goals/match). They are the first club among the top 5 European national championships to reach this milestone.
In the Champions League, Barca are also the second highest scoring club with 10 goals. Their attacking strength comes from many positions with Lewandowski (17 goals), Raphinha (11 goals), Yamal (6 goals), Olmo (5 goals), Pedri and Pablo Torre (3 goals).
Notably, Lewandowski has a great relationship with Red Star Belgrade. In January 2019, the Polish striker scored a poker in Bayern Munich's 6-0 victory. Before that, Lewy also contributed a goal in the "Gray Tigers"' 3-0 victory against this team. It will not be surprising if Lewy continues to score to help Barca win the upcoming match.
This will be the first time the two teams have met in European competition.
Human resources situation
The home side will be without Peter Olayinka and Nemanja Radonjic for this match, while there are also fitness doubts over goalkeeper Omri Glazer and defender Ognjen Mimovic.
On the other side of the front line, Barcelona will be missing at least 6 players, including Marc-Andre ter Stegen and Ferran Torres.
Expected lineup:
Belgrade Red Stars: Ilic, Young-woo, Spajic, Djiga, Silas, Elsnik, Krunic, Maksimovic, Rodic, Duarte, Ndiaye.
Barcelona: Pena, Kounde, Cubarsi, Martinez, Balde, Pedri, De Jong, Yamal, Olmo, Raphinha, Lewandowski.
The match between Red Star Belgrade and Barcelona takes place at 3:00 a.m. on November 7 (Vietnam time).
