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

Greetings to another night of electrifying European Cup football. 9 fixtures are scheduled for tonight, featuring three English clubs in action. The Blues meet Barça in the standout match of the evening, while The Magpies travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway stage of the group stage, meaning the standings is beginning to form. All six English teams are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts separating 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

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

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

Lineup Changes

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

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was eager to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a available twelve and direct 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 Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.