European Cup Fixtures Tonight: Marseille v Newcastle & More

Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup football. Nine fixtures are scheduled for tonight, including three English teams in play. The Blues meet Barça in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the table is starting to take shape. All six English sides are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 pts between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

Here are tonight’s fixtures, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea lineup. Out go Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off 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 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 sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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