Champions League Action Tonight: Chelsea v Barcelona & More

Welcome to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 games are scheduled for tonight, including 3 British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle visit Marseille and City host Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway stage of the league stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of volatility about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s matches, all starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, won by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a possible 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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