European Cup Action This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & More

Welcome to another night of electrifying Champions League football. 9 fixtures are planned for this evening, featuring three English teams in play. The Blues meet Barça in the standout match of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, so the standings is taking form. All six British sides are presently in the top 12, however there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's matches, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win over City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.