European Cup Fixtures This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games

Greetings to a fresh evening of electrifying European Cup football. Nine fixtures are planned for this evening, including 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barça in the standout match of the night, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway point of the league stage, meaning the table is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are currently in the top 12, however there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

The Blues (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a available twelve and direct qualification 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. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.