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maltatoday, Wednesday, 16 september 2015 20 Sport SPORTTODAY football Today Group E 20:45 Bayer Leverkusen - BATE Borisov 20:45 Roma - Barcelona Group F 20:45 Dinamo Zagreb - Arsenal 20:45 Olympiakos - Bayern Munich Group G 20:45 Chelsea - Maccabi Tel Aviv 20:45 Dynamo Kyiv - FC Porto Group H 20:45 Gent - Lyon 20:45 Valencia - Zenit St. Petersburg UEFA Champions League fixtures begovic backs 'best manager in the world' to see Chelsea through blues keeper asmir begovic insists his side will emerge stronger than ever from their horror start to the premier League season as they prepare to take on maccabi tel aviv Chelsea remain high on confi- dence despite their poor start to the season, and if anything the current struggles has made the players stronger, goalkeeper asmir Begovic said ahead of Wednesday's Champions league game at home to Maccabi Tel aviv. The Bosnia international is in line to make his debut in the competition against the Israeli side because first-choice Thibaut Courtois is recovering from knee surgery. Premier league champions Chelsea will be closely scrutinised after slipping to 17th place in the table with only one win from five games. But Begovic said that self-belief was still high among the squad he joined from stoke City during the transfer window as replacement for Petr Cech. "There's always going to be a bit of a hit on confidence when things aren't going your way," he told a news conference. "But confidence levels are still pretty good. "I think it's going to make us stronger going forward. "something we can't forget is what this group achieved last year. We have some of the best players in the world and we're more than confident we'll get to the levels we want to." Begovic also backed Jose Mour- inho, whom he called "the best manager in the world". Mourinho told the same news conference that it was "sad" that critics were trying to find prob- lems among his squad that he said did not exist. "The only problem we have is that we don't have good results," he added. "In some other clubs you have to go back 10 years to remem- ber good results. Three months ago we were the best team in the country." he said there would be changes to the team that lost 3-1 at everton on saturday, although Colombian striker Radamel Falcao will not be in the squad because of a minor injury. Asmir Begovic will make his Champions League debut as Roma supporters may be look- ing ahead to Barcelona's Champions league visit with some trepidation and coach Rudi Garcia certainly does not seem to be bursting with optimism. Roma have finished second in se- rie a for the last two seasons but still there is still a clear gap between themselves and europe's top clubs, despite the addition of edin Dzeko and Mohamed salah. Barcelona's visit to the stadio Ol- impico on Wednesday, which kicks off their Champions league title defence, comes just under a year af- ter Roma lost 7-1 at home to Bayern Munich in the same competition. The Bavarians sliced through the Roma defence almost at will as they scored five goals in a bewildering half hour spell in the first half. Roma went on to finish third in the group after taking one point in two games off Manchester City while domestically they have come up short in matches against Juven- tus, with three defeats in their last four league meetings, With that in mind, Garcia has al- ready made it clear that he would be happy to finish second in a group that also includes Champions league regulars Bayer leverkusen and Belarus champions BaTe Bori- sov. "The target in the Champions league is to get past the group stage and to the round of 16," Garcia said in an interview last week with Radio Monte Carlo. "Behind Barcelona, it is an open group." There was just a hint of optimism when he said: "everybody is con- vinced that they will get 18 points, so that implies getting six off us, but sometimes miracles happen in football. "We've got nothing to lose and we've got to do all we can to upset the odds." The match takes Barcelona coach luis enrique back to the club where he spent an unimpressive season in 2011/12, when Roma were clearly in transition. The two sides last met 13 years ago, again in the Champions league second group stage, when they drew 1-1 in Barcelona and Roma won the return 3-0 with luis enrique in the Barcelona side. Incredibly, there is one playing survivor from those games - Roma playmaker Francesco Totti who will 39 at the end of the month. "I want to win at least one title with my cap- tain, Francesco Totti," said Garcia. "I don't know if Totti or the Pope are more important in Rome, but I can certainly say that for Francesco, the Roma shirt is like a second stint. "he's an extraordinary player, on and off the field, and we are just pac- ing him in training, but he never asks for any special favours." Barcelona begin title defence against apprehensive Roma Players of FC Barcelona celebrate after the UEFA Champions League final match between Juventus F.C. and FC Barcelona in Berlin, Germany