Welcome to another night of thrilling Champions League football. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, with 3 British clubs in play. Chelsea meet Barça in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.
We're at the midway stage of the group phase, meaning the table is beginning to form. All six British sides are presently in the top 12, but there are only two pts separating fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a hint of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.
Here are tonight’s matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:
Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.
Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.
The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.
Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.
Official Vincic (Slovenian).
The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.
Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.
Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.
Not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”
We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is handling for that.
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