Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup football. 9 fixtures are planned for tonight, featuring 3 British clubs in action. The Blues meet Barça in the key match of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.
Group Rankings
We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six English sides are presently in the top 12, however there are only two pts separating fifth and sixteenth position, thus there's a hint of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.
Tonight’s Fixtures
These are tonight’s games, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:
- Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
- Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
- Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
- Chelsea v Barcelona
- Dortmund v Villarreal
- Leverkusen visit Man City
- Marseille v Newcastle
- Napoli v Qarabag
- Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague
Squad Updates
Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea team. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.
Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.
The Blues (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.
Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.
Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.
Official Vincic (Slovenian).
Past Meetings
The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.
Initial Game Reports
Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.
Marseille v Newcastle Preview
Although Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.
It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”
A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.
