Champions League Fixtures This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games
Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting Champions League football. 9 matches are scheduled for tonight, including 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the standout match of the evening, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.
League Table
It's the midway stage of the league phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 points separating 5th and 16th position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.
Match Schedule
Here are this evening's fixtures, all starting at 8pm unless stated:
- Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
- Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
- Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
- Chelsea v Barcelona
- Dortmund v Villarreal
- Leverkusen visit Man City
- Newcastle travel to Marseille
- Qarabag play Napoli
- Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao
Team News
Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.
Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.
The Blues (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.
Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.
Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.
Official Vincic (Slovenian).
Historical Context
The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising star from CĂ´te d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.
Early Match Updates
Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.
Marseille v Newcastle Preview
Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.
Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible 12 and automatic progression 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 minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.
