European Cup Action Tonight: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games

Greetings to another night of exciting European Cup soccer. 9 fixtures are scheduled for this evening, including three British teams in action. Chelsea face Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, so the standings is beginning to form. All six English clubs are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points separating 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.