European Cup Action This Evening: Chelsea v Barcelona & More
Welcome to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup football. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, with three English teams in play. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.
Group Rankings
It's the halfway stage of the group stage, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th position, thus there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.
Match Schedule
These are this evening's matches, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:
- Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
- Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
- Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
- Chelsea v Barcelona
- Villarreal meet Dortmund
- Leverkusen visit Man City
- Marseille v Newcastle
- Qarabag play Napoli
- Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao
Squad Updates
Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.
Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.
Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.
Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.
Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.
Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.
Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).
Past Meetings
The only previous meeting involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.
Initial Game Reports
Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.
Marseille v Newcastle Preview
Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.
It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a possible twelve and direct progression 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 Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.
