MILAN - "A riveder le stelle", in the true sense of going up against Europe’s stars once again. The draw in Monte Carlo saw Luciano Spalletti’s Inter come out alongside Barcelona, Tottenham Hotspur and PSV Eindhoven in Group B.
Ernesto Valverde’s side are the reigning champions of Spain (their seventh title from the past ten years) and they will be competing for the 29th time in Europe’s biggest competition, which they have won four times in the last 13 seasons. The captain and star for the Blaugrana is Lionel Messi and he’s the second-best scorer in the competition’s history with 100 goals scored. Barcelona have won 24 of their last 26 UEFA Champions League fixtures at the Camp Nou while they drew the other two. They’ve also won 17 of their last 22 matches in the group stage with four draws and one defeat in the other games. There have been ten previous encounters between the teams with Inter winning two, drawing three and losing five. The most recent meeting was in the 2009-10 Champions League when the Nerazzurri made it through the tie with a 3-1 win at San Siro and a 1-0 defeat at Camp Nou on the way to beating Bayern Munich in the final in Madrid.
For Mauricio Pochettino’s Tottenham Hotspur, this is the club’s fifth appearance in the competition and the third consecutive season in the group stage. The north London side lost just one of their eight Champions League matches in the 2017-18 season, winning five and drawing two. Captain Hugo Lloris skippered France as they won the World Cup while his assistant captain Harry Kane was the top scorer in Russia and he’s shone in the Champions League with nine goals and two assists in his first ten appearances. The head-to-head record is level with two wins for the Nerazzurri (both at San Siro) and two wins for Spurs in England in the 2010-11 Champions League and the 2012-13 Europa League.
Mark van Bommel’s PSV Eindhoven have made it to this point in the Champions League by winning the Eredivisie and then seeing off the challenge of BATE Borisov in the play-off (3-2 away, 3-0 at home). It will be their 26th season on Europe’s biggest stage and the Dutch side won the trophy in 1988. 28-year-old forward Luuk De Jong captains the side. With 82 goals from 166 appearances, he’s one of their stars along with the Mexican Hirving Lozano who was top scorer last season with 17 goals in 29 appearances before impressing at the World Cup. The only previous fixtures between Inter and PSV were at the 2007-8 group stage, the Nerazzurri won 2-0 at San Siro and 1-0 away in the Netherlands.
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