Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are set for tonight, including 3 British teams in action. The Blues meet Barcelona in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.
We're at the halfway stage of the group stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.
Here are this evening's games, all starting at 8pm unless stated:
Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.
Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.
The Blues (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.
Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.
Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.
Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.
Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).
The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from CĂ´te d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.
Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.
Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.
Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available twelve and direct 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. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.
Elara is a seasoned gaming journalist with a passion for slot mechanics and player strategies.
