European Cup Matches Tonight: Marseille v Newcastle & More

Welcome to another evening of electrifying European Cup soccer. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, with three English clubs in action. Chelsea face Barça in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the league phase, so the table is beginning to form. All six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts separating fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s fixtures, all kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available twelve and automatic 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. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.