Champions League matches in Group C

Team news and probable line-ups for Wednesday's Group C matches in the second phase of the Champions League:

REAL MADRID vs. AC MILAN

Ronaldo is a major doubt for the game after suffering a minor muscle strain in his left leg that forced him off at halftime during the 4-1 victory over Racing Santander at the weekend. The World Player of the Year will undergo a late fitness test.

Guti, who capped a fine performance with a classy goal when he came on as a substitute against Racing, is favourite to take the place of the Brazilian, but coach Vicente del Bosque also have the option of going for out-and-out striker Javier Portillo, who also scored at the weekend.

Ivan Helguera is set to return to the centre of defence alongside Francisco Pavon after making a quicker than expected recovery from an ankle injury.

Javier Portillo's injury-time equaliser against Borussia Dortmund last month forced the holders back into contention in the group.

Now they will hope to take advantage of the fact that Milan have already qualified for the quarter-finals as group winners and will be resting players.

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti has said Italian international striker Filippo Inzaghi will not play and there are likely to be others.

Brazil's Rivaldo, who missed Milan's weekend league game against Chievo because of a sore ankle, is expected to start up front alongside Andriy Shevchenko.

Defender Alessandro Costacurta takes the place of Kakha Kaladze, who has a pulled hamstring.

Probable teams:

AC Milan: 12-Dida, 14-Dario Simic, 13-Alessandro Nesta, 19-Alessandro Costacurta, 3-Paolo Maldini, 8-Gennaro Gattuso, 21-Andrea Pirlo, 20-Clarence Seedorf, 10-Rui Costa, 11-Rivaldo, 7-Andriy Shevchenko.

Real Madrid: 1-Iker Casillas, 2-Michel Salgado, 22-Francisco Pavon, 6-Ivan Helguera, 3-Roberto Carlos, 10-Luis Figo, 24-Claude Makelele, 16-Flavio Conceicao, 5-Zinedine Zidane, 14-Guti or 11-Ronaldo, 7-Raul.

Referee: Kim Milton Nielsen (Denmark)

BORUSSIA DORTMUND vs. LOKOMOTIV MOSCOW

Dortmund, whose fate slipped out of their hands with Madrid's injury-time equaliser in their previous Group C game, need to win this time.

If they fail to progress, Germany would be without a team in the quarter-finals of European club competition for the first time since the 1983-84 season, when there were still three events.

The German champions warmed up in poor fashion, losing 1-0 to lowly Borussia Moenchengladbach in the Bundesliga on Saturday to drop 13 points behind runaway leaders Bayern Munich.

Dortmund have been suffering lately from the absence of inspirational Czech playmaker Tomas Rosicky, who is nursing a thigh muscle injury, and he remains doubtful for Wednesday's game.

Lokomotiv rebounded from a shock 1-0 defeat to first division Anji Makhachkala in a Russian Cup tie a week ago to score victory on penalties over city rivals CSKA in the Supercup last Saturday.

The Russian champions, with only the slimmest of qualification hopes after collecting just one point from their first four games, will be without suspended captain and their top scorer in European competition Dmitry Loskov, as well as defender Gennady Nizhegorodov.

However, influential South African midfielder Jacob Lekgetho and sweeper Oleg Pashinin return after sitting out a 1-0 home defeat by AC Milan two weeks ago.

Midfielder Marat Izmailov, Russia's Player of the Year in 2001, has recovered from a string of injuries and should take the playmaking role for the suspended Loskov.

Probable teams:

Borussia Dortmund: 1-Jens Lehmann, 23-Ahmed Reda Madouni, 7-Stefan Reuter, 4-Christian Woerns, 21-Christoph Metzelder, 18-Lars Ricken, 8-Torsten Frings, 5-Sebastian Kehl, 17-Dede, 9-Jan Koller, 12-Ewerthon.

Lokomotiv Moscow: 1-Sergei Ovchinnikov, 4-Jakob Lekgetho, 5-Sergei Ignashevich, 14-Oleg Pashinin, 16-Vadim Yevseyev, 17-Dmitry Sennikov, 21-Bennett Mnguni, 7-Marat Izmailov, 8-Vladimir Maminov, 11-Julio Cesar, 25-Ruslan Pimenov.

Referee: Frank De Bleeckere (Belgium).