European Cup Fixtures This Evening: Marseille v Newcastle & Additional Games

Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, with three English teams in action. The Blues face Barça in the marquee fixture of the night, while The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway stage of the group stage, so the table is starting to take shape. All six British teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's games, all starting at 8:00 PM 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
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea team. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a possible 12 and direct qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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