Onus on Cavani for PSG against Barcelona

• by Paul Kennedy  @pkedit, Sep 29, 2014

[UCL: Three Games to Watch] Paris St. Germain-Barcelona is the marquee match of Matchday 2 in the UEFA Champions League, but PSG heads into the game with problems, most notably the absence of its star Zlatan Ibrahimovic, sidelined because of a heel injury. Shakhtar Donetsk's first home game against Porto will be played 620 miles away in Lviv, while Wednesday's big match pits Atletico Madrid against Juventus in a battle of Spanish and Italian champions.

UEFA Champions League Schedule:
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
CSKA Moscow vs. Bayern Munich (11:50 a.m., Fox Soccer Plus and ESPN Deportes)
Manchester City vs. Roma (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1)
Sporting Lisbon vs. Chelsea (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 2 and ESPN3)
Paris SG vs. Barcelona (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net affiliates and Fox Deportes)
Shakhtar Donetsk vs. Porto (2:30 p.m., ESPN Deportes)
APOEL Nicosia vs. Ajax (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)
BATE Borisov vs. Athletic Bilbao (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)
Schalke 04 vs. Maribor (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)

PARIS SG-BARCELONA. PSG will be without Zlatan Ibrahimovic, sidelined because of a heel injury, for Tuesday's game at the Parc des Princes. That will put the onus on Uruguayan star Edinson Cavani to lead the PSG attack against a Barcelona team that has yet to concede a goal.

PSG was without Ibra for Saturday's 1-1 draw at Toulouse, its sixth tie in 10 competitive matches so far this season. The result dropped the defending French champion into a tie for fourth place in Ligue 1.

Barcelona is coming off a 6-0 win against Granada in which Neymar and Lionel Messi combined for five goals. The hat trick was Neymar's first with Barca, which has six wins and a tie so far in the 2014-15 season.

SKAKHTAR DONETSK-PORTO. Shakhtar Donetsk plays its first home game of the Champions League season against Porto on Tuesday, not at home at the Donbass Arena but in Lviv, 620 miles to the east. Donetsk is the center of the conflict between the Ukrainian army and pro-Russian separatists.

Most of the team's key players are Brazilians, and before the season six players -- five Brazilians and one Argentine -- refused to join up with the team until they got assurances from the club's billionaire owner, Rinat Akhmetov, and Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu that they would be secure.

Shakhtar is playing its home league games in the Ukrainian capital, Kiev and will travel to Lviv for UEFA games. The Donbass Arena was shelled during the conflict, and there is little chance of Shakhtar returning home this season.

ATLETICO MADRID-JUVENTUS. Atletico Madrid, the 2014 Champions League runner-up, lost its opening game at home to Olympiakos, 3-2, and faces another tough home match when it hosts Juventus on Wednesday in a battle of Spanish and Italian league champions.

Juve is perfect so far in 2014-15 with five wins in five Serie A matches and a 2-0 win over Malmo of Sweden in their Group A opener. It won its third straight Scudetto in 2013-14, but the Champions League is a priority this season. Last season, it exited in the group stage. The last time Juve advanced to the semifinals was in 2003.

UEFA Champions League Schedule:
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 1
Zenit St. Petersburg vs. Monaco (11:50 a.m. ET, Fox Soccer Plus, Fox Deportes and ESPN Deportes:
Arsenal vs. Galatasaray (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 1 and Fox Deportes)
Atletico Madrid vs. Juventus (2:30 p.m., ESPN2)
FC Basel vs. Liverpool (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports 2)
Ludogorets vs. Real Madrid (2:30 p.m., Fox Sports Net affiliates and ESPN Deportes)
Anderlecht vs. Borussia Dortmund (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)
Bayer Leverkusen vs. Benfica (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)
Malmo FF vs. Olympiakos (2:30 p.m. ESPN3)