Bayern Munich head coach Julian Nagelsmann is "preparing for all scenarios" against Paris Saint-Germain, who will make a late decision on whether to field Kylian Mbappe.
France international Mbappe returned to training on the eve of Tuesday's Champions League last-16 first leg at the Parc des Princes.
The 24-year-old had initially been ruled out of the match after sustaining a hamstring injury against Montpellier on February 1 that was expected to sideline him for three weeks.
While Mbappe has been included in PSG's 22-man squad, Christophe Galtier said on Monday he will wait until the day of the game before making a decision on his involvement.
Lionel Messi is also not fully fit, having sat out Saturday's Ligue 1 defeat to Monaco, but Nagelsmann is preparing for the possibility of both players featuring.
"If they both play, then they'll be fit," Nagelsmann said at his pre-match press conference. "Messi in particular is a player who knows how to play when he hasn't trained a lot.
"I don't know if Kylian Mbappe will play from the start. We will prepare for all scenarios. Both can hurt any team in the world. But we will be ready.
"Our job will be to be ready for Mbappe, too, no matter whether he plays. We are generally prepared for different scenarios, but the game will not depend on that alone.
"We mustn't make the mistake of only focusing on the superstars. But PSG are also concerned about how to stop our players as well."
Mbappe has scored 34 and assisted 23 in 50 Champions League appearances since his PSG debut in 2017 – no other players has managed 20 goals and 20 assists in that time.
PSG have struggled in the superstar forward's absence, having followed up a shock Coupe de France loss against Marseille with defeat to Monaco in the league.
Bayern have responded to a slow start to 2023 with three straight wins, meanwhile, but whether this season is deemed a success will come down to how they perform in Europe.
"I would like to progress. In knockout games, progressing is always important," Nagelsmann said. "You don't have many chances in the Champions League.
"All teams want to win the Champions League. It's one of my dreams to win the Champions League. It's an important game for Bayern and an important game for me.
"Of course, a season is rated differently when you get far in the Champions League."
Bayern have won five of their previous 11 meetings with PSG, each of those coming in the Champions League, while the Ligue 1 giants have prevailed six times.
In a repeat of the 2019-20 Champions League final, which Bayern edged 1-0, Nagelsmann insists there is nothing to separate the reigning champions of Germany and France.
"It will be an even duel, a 50-50 game," the Bayern boss said. "It's not a do-or-die game at this point, but we'll try to put in a good away performance.
"The Champions League provides a completely different kind of motivation, so you don't have to make the players extra hot ahead of the game."
Since the start of the 2019-20 season, Bayern have the highest win percentage (86.5 per cent) and the most total victories (32) of any team in the Champions League.
Indeed, despite playing 37 matches in the competition during that period, no team have lost fewer games than them (two).
Harry Kane stars with hat-trick and two assists as Bayern Munich batter Bochum
Harry Kane was the star of the show with a hat-trick and two assists as Bayern Munich maintained their unbeaten run in the Bundesliga after hammering Bochum 7-0.
The hosts ran riot with the England captain scoring just minutes after Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting’s opener and goals from Matthijs de Ligt and Leroy Sane gave them a 4-0 lead at half-time.
Their dominance continued after the break as Kane scored from the spot and assisted Mathys Tel before earning his first hat-trick for Bayern with minutes to go.
Kane’s excellent start with Bayern means he has now scored seven goals in five league matches as the defending Bundesliga champions sit top of the table.
Elsewhere in the Bundesliga, Marco Reus’ second-half goal earned Borussia Dortmund a 1-0 win over Wolfsburg while former Chelsea striker Timo Werner scored the only goal for RB Leipzig in their victory at Borussia Monchengladbach.
Hoffenheim won 2-0 at Union Berlin thanks to goals from Andrej Kramaric and Maximilian Beier, while Werder Bremen were 2-1 winners against Cologne. Davie Selke put the visitors ahead, but Rafael Borre and Justin Njinmah claimed the three points.
Ermedin Demirovic’s double earned 10-man FC Augsburg a 2-1 victory over Mainz, who had taken the lead through Ludovic Ajorque. Arne Engels was sent off in the 62nd minute, but Augsburg held on.
Joao Cancelo’s 89th-minute goal completed an amazing comeback by Barcelona as they scored three times in the final 10 minutes to beat Celta Vigo 3-2 in LaLiga.
Rafael Benitez’s Celta put in an excellent display and looked home and hosed as they went 2-0 up after 76 minutes when Tasos Douvikas added to Jorgen Strand Larsen’s excellent first-half goal.
But they succumbed to an incredible late rally that no one saw coming as Robert Lewandowski scored twice in four minutes before former Manchester City defender Cancelo won it with one minute of normal time left.
The comeback will paper over the cracks of what was a worrying display for Barca, who were cut open at will by a vibrant Celta side, but Xavi’s men go to the top of the table with the three points.
Benitez will be highly enthused by what he saw from his team, even if they are just one point above the drop zone.
Barcelona climbed above Girona, who continued their excellent start to the season with a 5-3 win over Mallorca, with goals coming from David Lopez, Artem Dovbyk, Ivan Martin, Yangel Herrera and Savio. Vedat Muriqi and Abdon Prats’ brace replied for Mallorca. Sevilla and Osasuna drew 0-0.
AC Milan drew level with city rivals Inter at the top of Serie A after a 1-0 win over Verona.
Rafael Leao’s early goal did the damage, though Inter can go clear later in the weekend.
Juventus missed the chance to go top after they slumped to a 4-2 defeat at Sassuolo.
The Bianconeri had claimed 10 points from an unbeaten start, but came unstuck at the Mapei Stadium as Sassuolo battled to a second league win.
Armand Lauriente, Domenico Berardi, Andrea Pinamonti and an own goal from Federico Gatti sealed the three points for Sassuolo. Juventus levelled twice through Matias Vina’s own goal and Federico Chiesa.
Nantes won an eight-goal thriller 5-3 against Lorient in Ligue 1.
Goals from Matthis Abline, Eray Comert, Mostafa Mohamed, Florent Mollet and Moses Simon did the damage, with Eli Kroupi, Romain Faivre and Tosin Aiyegun responding for the visitors in a topsy-turvy match.
Grant McCann believes Doncaster are heading in right direction after Gills scalp
Doncaster boss Grant McCann believes his side are only getting better after making it back-to-back wins with the 2-1 triumph over high-flying Gillingham.
Two excellent strikes from Ben Close, including an 87th-minute winner, saw Rovers collect their first home league triumph of the campaign, a week on from finally picking up a maiden victory at Forest Green.
And McCann feels his side are firmly heading in the right direction as they seek to make up ground on the promotion-chasing pack in the division.
“We had to be very good to win and I felt in the second half we were as good as we have been this season,” he said. “I thought we were really in control.
“We’re yet to have that full 90-minute performance. We’re still searching and that takes some doing, every manager will tell you that. Teams will always have a spell against you.
“I felt that Gillingham didn’t really have much of a spell against us and on a whole, I felt the second half was a real performance from us.
“I could feel the team taking on board the information we had given them, particularly in taking up the pockets of space to have that control of the game against a top, top team.”
Gillingham manager Neil Harris is still looking for his team to find the balance between defensive solidity and creativity after dropping points in South Yorkshire.
The Gills set the early pace in League Two with five 1-0 wins from their opening eight matches. But with Harris encouraging them to deliver more decisive scorelines, they have shown vulnerability in defence, which he is keen to see quickly banished.
“In the last couple of weeks we’ve been a lot more creative, we’ve had sparks, we’ve shown class and we want to continue that because if we do, we will wins games of football comfortably,” Harris said.
“We’ve won a lot of games so far 1-0 by being resilient. In the last couple we’ve not been as resilient as I would have liked but we’ve been really good with the ball. We’ve just got to find that balance between the two.
“The winning goal for Doncaster – he stuck it in the top corner but it’s poor from the restart, and it was from the first. To be a top team in League Two, we’ve got to be better than that from restarts.”
Despite his frustrations, Harris felt Gillingham should have won the game comfortably.
He said: “I’m baffled how we’ve not won the game. We’ve not won the game because we weren’t clinical enough. We should have been coming off (with) four or five goals but if you don’t take your chances, you don’t win games.”
Nigel Clough praises patience as Mansfield go third
Mansfield manager Nigel Clough praised his side’s patience as they moved up into third place with a 1-0 home win over Barrow.
Stags are the only EFL side unbeaten this season in all competitions but were made to sweat until Ollie Clarke drilled in the 72nd-minute winner.
A red card in the 84th minute Junior Tiensia then sealed the Bluebirds’ fate.
“We needed that win,” said Clough. “We are not quite as fluent as we were a few weeks ago, but you grind them out.
“With nine players out at the moment, that is probably a good reason why we are disjointed at times.
“But one good finish and you win the game – it was an important clean sheet.
“In a few weeks’ time no one will remember the game, just the three points which have put us back up to third in the league. And I think there are going to be quite a few games like that here where we are going to have to be patient.
“The crowd are going to have to be patient as well. We are not always going to be having 25 shots, as much as we’d like to.”
Barrow had the edge in the first half and Emile Acquah missed the target with their two best chances.
Rory Feely also sent a free header over from a 58th-minute corner.
But Mansfield took control and Will Swan saw his shot deflect over, skimming the top of the crossbar on the hour.
Calum Macdonald escaped with a yellow card for his challenge on 70 minutes before Clarke broke through with a low finish from 20 yards from Swan’s pull-back from the left.
Tiensia then saw red on 83 minutes for diving in on Aaron Lewis.
Barrow boss Pete Wild felt the game proved his side can live with the best and he felt Stags had the rub of the green on the red cards.
“I thought first half we played really well and it was a classic away-from-home performance,” he said.
“Second half as the home team they pinned us in and I didn’t think we got out enough and got on the front foot.
“It is fine margins and it didn’t go our way. But there were mitigating circumstances and I feel hard done by.
“The turning point for me was they should have had a red card before ours. He dived in and left the floor. Our lad’s was a red though, which didn’t help us.
“They won it with the one shot we haven’t blocked in the whole game.
“There was nothing between the two teams which shows we can live with the top teams at this level. But they have just edged it today.”
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