Tonight from eight o’ clock, six days into his tenure as head coach, Graham Potter will sample the magic of the Champions League under floodlights at Stamford Bridge as Chelsea host Red Bull Salzburg, the 199th different opposition in the club’s history.

This is the Blues’ 284th outing in Europe, and just four were previously against clubs from Austria – both Viennese. Wiener Sport Club were beaten 2-1 on aggregate in the 1965/66 Inter Cities Fairs Cup, and the away goals rule saw off Austria Vienna after a 1-1 draw over two legs in the 1994/95 Cup Winners’ Cup.

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The 47-year-old Englishman will become the first-ever boss to open his Chelsea account in Europe’s elite competition. Should Potter’s arrival mean victory (much-needed after the setback in Croatia), a draw, or win for visitors Zagreb in Milan, would lift the two-time winners to second in Group E with a third of group matches gone.

While the Premier League was suspended at the weekend, in Austria, Matthias Jaissle’s youthful Salzburg side put three past lowly Ried despite a substantially changed line-up. The Alpine visitors’ confidence will be high and they are on a roll domestically. However, their three recent excursions in this competition were all defeats, including a 7-1 thrashing at Bayern, and they remain winless after six games against English clubs.

With the Liverpool league clash postponed going into an international break, this is the world champions’ last action until 1 October at Crystal Palace. The Blues are unbeaten in the past eight Champions League games at the Bridge and won each of the last two, against Malmo and Juventus, by four goals to nil.

Chelsea team news

Incoming Chelsea coach Graham Potter is renowned for progressive, attractive, pressing football, and his emotional intelligence could be invaluable for an immensely talented squad lacking confidence and coherence. His tactics look well-defined but flexible, often tweaked once the action is underway.

He will hope to find the answer to teams invariably sitting back and defending against the world champions, staying compact around the box and forcing attacks wide. From there things have tended to peter out as, sadly, we lead the way in being caught offside in the Premier League (18 times), and the aerial threat from crosses has not been exceptional.

Elsewhere, Potter’s magic may be needed to fix a vulnerability in counter-attacks and at set-plays. Although he sometimes uses a back four his usual 3-4-2-1 approach relies, like Thomas Tuchel’s, on high-quality rampaging wing-backs – including Marc Cucurella, of course – who both join the attack and stay high.

Different to the Bavarian, though, Potter has preferred central midfielders comfortable joining the back three when the opposition counter. That pair, plus two attacking midfielders ahead of them, are often asked to form a tight box in the middle to block through-passes and enable concerted pressing.

N’Golo Kante is still sidelined and Edou Mendy is out with a knee problem, with Kepa Arrizabalaga set to keep his place. Thiago Silva is available after staying home against Dinamo, while masked Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang could make history. Chelsea’s oldest-ever home Champions League debutant goalscorer is currently Michael Ballack, aged 29 years, 351 days against Werder Bremen in 2006. Auba is 33 years and 88 days old.

Champions League group E

Jaissle's Salzburg waltzers

Jesse Marsch’s successor as Salzburg’s head coach, Matthias Jaissle, generally uses a 4-3-1-2 or a 4-diamond-2 formation, meaning they pack the centre of the field and rely on attacking full-backs for width.

Last week, the AC Milan side still regularly broke the stranglehold with short, fast and progressive passing or a well-placed longer ball over midfield. Clever running between the lines from the Rossoneri, especially dribbling midfielder Ismael Bennacer and darting Rafael Leao, often dragged the hosts’ injury-depleted defence out of positional comfort zones.

For some time the Blues have struggled to punish teams who block their goal area with bodies, and this may be how Salzburg will set up this evening. They have conceded just three goals in seven games domestically but ran out of steam towards the end of each half at home to the Italians, the equaliser coming as no surprise.

Salzburg’s greatest asset, though, is the efficiency of their attack. The Austria Bundesliga leaders are also its top scorers, with an eye-popping 55 per cent of shots on target. The front two were rested at Ried on Saturday, but both replacements, including teenage Slovenian Benjamin Sesko, netted within 20 minutes.

The usual strike pairing, leading goalscorers Noah Okafor and Fernando, initiate the Austrians’ pressing and try to cut out routes for passing from the back, with central midfielder Nicolas Seiwald playing high with the aim of hemming opponents in.

Injuries continue to disrupt Jaissle’s planning, however, with Strahinja Pavlovic potentially his only fit centre-back after Oumar Solet and Maxi Wober entered a packed treatment room. That could require Potter’s former on-loan left-back at Brighton, Bernardo, to move centrally.

We have history

We have never met Salzburg competitively, but played a friendly there in July 2019. Christian Pulisic netted a brace in a 5-3 win the Blues dominated – despite the goals conceded.

First night vibes

Graham Potter is far from the first coach to open his Chelsea account with an evening fixture, but the omens for it are very positive. Thomas Tuchel started his 100-game tenure at home to Wolves with a 6pm Premier League kick-off in January 2020, Antonio Conte’s opener in August 2016 was a night-time league derby against West Ham, and Rafael Benitez’s interim role began at 7.45 on Sunday 25 November 2012 at home to Man City, also in the top flight.

Further back, Gianluca Vialli took the reins under floodlights with a League Cup semi-final victory against Arsenal in February 1998, caretaker Guus Hiddink made his bow in an FA Cup success at Watford on a Saturday evening in February 2009, and Robbie Di Matteo won at Birmingham City on Tuesday 6 March 2012 in the same competition.

Each of those coaches had won silverware by the end of the same season, four of them in the competition in which they made their bow.

Chilly tech landmark

Ben Chilwell became an unfortunate Champions League ground-breaker last week. A conclusive graphic showed the wing-back had strayed ahead of a defender according to the new semi-automated offside tracking system (SAOT), which instantly analyses player mapping software and a microchip in the matchball. Unfortunately, the call helped the VAR rule out a maiden goal for debutant Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang from Chilly’s cross.

Elsewhere in Group E

Our upcoming back-to-back opponents AC Milan, who host Dinamo Zagreb this evening, are away at struggling Sampdoria on Saturday in Serie A, where they currently sit third.

A musical tale of two cities

This clash is also a classical one between Handel (who resided in the west end of London) and Mozart, born in Salzburg. The English capital clearly has the edge because ‘Zadok The Priest’, first performed at Westminster Abbey for the coronation of George II in 1727, usually provides the music for the Champions League’s pre-match anthem. The closest Wolfgang Amadeus’s music has come to anything similar was use of his ‘A Musical Joke’ as the theme for BBC’s ‘Horse of the Year’ show in the 1970s.

Remembering the Queen

As a mark of respect UEFA’s usual pre-match pageantry will be absent this evening. Instead a period of silent reflection will take place and Chelsea Pensioners will lay floral wreaths. Supporter groups from both teams will also make displays in memory of the late Queen Elizabeth.

Champions League Matchday 2 results and fixtures

Tuesday
Sporting Lisbon 2 Tottenham 0
Viktoria Plzen 0 Inter Milan 2
Bayer Leverkusen 2 Atletico Madrid 0
Bayern Munich 2 Barcelona 0
Porto 0 Club Bruges 4
Liverpool 2 Ajax 1
Marseille 0 Eintracht Frankfurt 1

Wednesday
AC Milan v Dinamo Zagreb 5.45pm
Shakhtar Donetsk v Celtic 5.45pm
Chelsea v RB Salzburg 8pm
Copenhagen v Sevilla 8pm
Juventus v Benfica 8pm
Maccabi Haifa v PSG 8pm
Man City v Borussia Dortmund 8pm
Rangers v Napoli 8pm
Real Madrid v RB Leipzig 8pm