🔗 Share this article

Greetings to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League soccer. Nine matches are scheduled for tonight, featuring three English clubs in action. The Blues meet Barcelona in the key fixture of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the group stage, so the table is taking form. All six British teams are presently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points separating 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a sense of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s matches, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League victory over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.