Champions League Group B: After morale-sapping defeats at the weekend Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen go head-to-head in the Champions League tonight knowing that another slip-up could spell the end of their hopes of making the next round.

Real were dealt a humbling 3-0 defeat by arch-rivals Barcelona at the Nou Camp, while Leverkusen lost their first home match of the season on the same scoreline against Schalke 04.

With the two sides and Dynamo Kiev all tied on seven points in Group B, a win for Real would put them through, but defeat at the Bernabeu would leave them at the mercy of other two sides who play each other in the final round of matches.

Real have been in disappointing form throughout the season and after Saturday's loss to Barca the talk in the Spanish media is that the team are in terminal decline.

But midfielder David Beckham, who was criticised for his anonymous performance at the Nou Camp, believes a win against Leverkusen will end talk of a crisis at the club.

Beckham hinted he is still not match fit after his six-week injury lay-off and coach Mariano Garcia Remon could choose to drop Raul back into midfield and bring in Michael Owen up front in order to go for the win that would see Real through.

Raul goes into the match needing just one goal to equal the all-time European Cup scoring record of former Real great Alfredo Di Stefano whose record of 49 European goals has stood for just over 40 years.

Leverkusen, who slipped to 11th in the Bundesliga, after their defeat at home to Schalke 04, should welcome back skipper Jens Nowotny after a minor stomach problem.

The Germans crushed Real 3-0 when they met at the BayArena in the opening group match in September and will be hoping they can repeat that sort of performance in tonight's return at the Bernabeu.R Madrid v B Leverkusen