Welcome to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup football. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, featuring three English teams in play. Chelsea face Barça in the marquee match of the night, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.
We're at the halfway stage of the league phase, meaning the standings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.
These are tonight’s games, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:
Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.
Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.
Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.
Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.
Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.
Referee Vincic (Slovenia).
The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.
Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at Ajax.
Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.
It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a available twelve and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”
A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.
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