Champions League Matches This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & More

Greetings to another evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for this evening, including 3 British clubs in play. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, while Newcastle visit the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the league phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six English sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts between 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a sense of volatility about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's fixtures, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.