🔗 Share this article

Greetings to another evening of thrilling European Cup football. 9 fixtures are set for this evening, including three English clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the key match of the night, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and City welcome Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway stage of the group stage, meaning the table is beginning to form. All six English teams are presently in the top 12, but there are only two points separating fifth and 16th position, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory over City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.