Champions League Fixtures This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games

Greetings to another evening of electrifying European Cup football. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, including 3 British clubs in action. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee match of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway stage of the group stage, so the table is taking form. All six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points between 5th and 16th place, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's matches, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• 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
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.