Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup football. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, including 3 British teams in play. Chelsea take on Barça in the key fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.
We're at the halfway stage of the group phase, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.
Here are this evening's fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:
Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea lineup. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.
Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.
The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.
Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.
Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).
The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.
Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.
Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.
It's not that Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”
We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.
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