Champions League Matches Tonight: Chelsea v Barcelona & Additional Games

Welcome to another evening of electrifying Champions League football. 9 matches are planned for this evening, with 3 English teams in action. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, whilst The Magpies travel to the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the league stage, meaning the standings is starting to take shape. All six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's fixtures, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated 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 SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.