European Cup Matches Tonight: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games

Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, with three English clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the key match of the evening, while The Magpies visit the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway stage of the group phase, so the table is beginning to form. Each of the six British clubs are currently in the top 12, however there are only two points between 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s games, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

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

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a possible 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 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. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.
Eric Walker
Eric Walker

A physicist and gaming enthusiast passionate about making quantum concepts accessible to all through creative storytelling.