European Cup Action This Evening: Marseille v Newcastle & More
Welcome to another evening of electrifying European Cup soccer. Nine matches are planned for tonight, including 3 British teams in action. The Blues face Barça in the marquee match of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.
Current Standings
We're at the halfway stage of the group phase, so the standings is beginning to form. All six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts separating 5th and 16th position, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.
Tonight’s Fixtures
These are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:
- Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
- Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
- Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
- Barcelona take on Chelsea
- Dortmund v Villarreal
- Man City v Leverkusen
- Marseille v Newcastle
- Qarabag play Napoli
- Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao
Squad Updates
Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.
Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.
Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.
Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.
Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.
Referee Vincic (Slovenian).
Historical Context
The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an rising star from CĂ´te d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.
Early Match Updates
Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.
Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille
Although The Magpies arrived in the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.
It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible 12 and direct progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”
We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.
