If Barcelona are to reach another UEFA Champions League final they must first get through the group stages of the competition.
The defending champions have been drawn in Group E for this season’s tournament and here are the match-by-match breakdown for each match day leading up the sixth round of group fixtures.
The opening games of the group will take place on Wednesday, Sept. 16, with Lionel Messi and Barcelona traveling to take on AS Roma at Stadio Olimpico and Bayer Leverkusen tackling BATE Borisov at BayArena.
Match day 2 for Group E, which gets underway on Tuesday, Sept. 29, will see the defending champions returning home to face Bayer Leverkusen at Camp Nou and AS Roma making the trip tp Belarus to play BATE Borisov.
BATE Borisov will then entertain Spanish champions Barca on Tuesday, Oct. 20 and Leverkusen play host to Roma for match day 3 in the only fixtures on the schedule for October.
Match day 4 and 5 will take place in November, with Barcelona hosting BATE Borisov and Bayer Leverkusen making the trip to Italy to face Serie A outfits Roma in the former, while BATE Borisov meeting Bayer Leverkusen and Barcelona and Roma meeting in Spain on match day 5.
The Group E fixtures will conclude on Wednesday, Dec. 9, on match day 6, with Barcelona making the trip to Germany to play Bundesliga side Bayer and AS Roma ending at home against BATE Borisov.
Barca will start as the firm favourites to win the group, with many pundits also backing Messi to lead his team to glory again in the European competition this coming season.
Last year Barcelona had the most dangerous attack, which included Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, and with the likes of Andres Iniesta and Ivan Rakitic supporting again from midfield, it will be difficult to see anyone stopping the reigning treble winners from outscoring them during any contest.
Group E Teams
Barcelona
Bayer Leverkusen
AS Roma
FC BATE Borisov
