Welcome to another night of thrilling European Cup football. 9 fixtures are scheduled for tonight, with three British teams in play. Chelsea face Barcelona in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle visit Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.
It's the halfway stage of the league stage, meaning the table is beginning to form. Each of the six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.
Here are this evening's fixtures, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:
Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Out go Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.
Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.
The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.
Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.
Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).
The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.
Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.
Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.
Not that Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “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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