Greetings to another night of thrilling Champions League soccer. 9 games are set for this evening, including 3 English clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.
Current Standings
It's the halfway point of the group stage, so the standings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English sides are presently in the top 12, but there are only two points separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of volatility about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.
This Evening's Games
These are this evening's fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:
- Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
- Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
- Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
- Barcelona take on Chelsea
- Dortmund v Villarreal
- Leverkusen visit Man City
- Marseille v Newcastle
- Qarabag play Napoli
- Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague
Lineup Changes
Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.
Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.
The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.
Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.
Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.
Referee Vincic (Slovenian).
Historical Context
The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.
Early Match Updates
Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.
Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille
Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.
Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”
We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.
