Champions League: Chelsea vrs Marseille on Tuesday

Chelsea FC's home game against Olympique de Marseille in Group F has special resonance for Didier Deschamps, who renews acquaintance with one of his former clubs.

The teams are in contrasting moods after Matchday 1, Chelsea winning 4-1 at MŠK Žilina while Marseille were beaten 1-0 at home by FC Spartak Moskva.

Past meetings
The sides' only previous fixture came in Chelsea's debut UEFA Champions League campaign in the 1999/2000 second group stage. They beat Marseille 1-0 at Stamford Bridge through a Dennis Wise goal while the French side turned round that scoreline in the return with Robert Pirès getting the winner. That was OM's only victory in the section while Chelsea reached the quarter-finals, eventually losing to FC Barcelona.

Chelsea last received visitors from France in their opening fixture of the 2008/09 UEFA Champions League campaign. They defeated FC Girondins de Bordeaux 4-0, Frenchmen Florent Malouda and Nicolas Anelka on the scoresheet along with Frank Lampard.

Their other two home ties with French teams both ended in draws, 0-0 with Paris Saint-Germain FC in the 2004/05 group stage and 2-2 against AS Monaco FC in the previous season's semi-final second leg, the first of three successive last-four aggregate defeats for the London club.

Marseille lost on their first two visits to England. In their third, in the 2003/04 UEFA Cup fourth round, they became the first French visitors to avoid defeat at Liverpool FC at the sixth time of asking when Didier Drogba earned a 1-1 draw.

Two more draws followed before OM secured a 1-0 victory back at Anfield in the 2007/08 UEFA Champions League group stage thanks to Mathieu Valbuena's 77th-minute goal. Twelve months later they returned for another group fixture, losing by the same scoreline.

Match background
Chelsea are in their eighth successive UEFA Champions League campaign and their ninth overall. Their last home game ended in a rare defeat with former manager José Mourinho celebrating in the opposing dugout as his FC Internazionale Milano team won 1-0 to progress to the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Before that the London club had established an unbeaten UEFA Champions League home run of 21 games, including 15 victories. In group fixtures in the last four seasons Chelsea – who in five of the last seven campaigns have finished as group winners, also qualifying for the knockout rounds in the other two years – have won nine and drawn three of their 12 home games, conceding just four goals.

That 1999/2000 season is the only one of their previous four UEFA Champions League campaigns where Marseille advanced beyond the initial group stage.

When OM won at FC Zürich on Matchday 3 last season, it ended a run of six successive away defeats in the competition proper and they followed that with a 1-1 draw at AC Milan on Matchday 5.

Team ties
Deschamps spent 1999/2000 with Chelsea, winning the FA Cup. He also played in both the aforementioned UEFA Champions League games against Marseille and was a team-mate of John Terry.

Deschamps coached Monaco to the 2003/04 UEFA Champions League final, beating Chelsea in the semi-finals with a 3-1 home win and 2-2 away draw. Édouard Cissé was part of the Monaco team.

The suspended Didier Drogba had one season with Marseille in 2003/04, and was voted Ligue 1 Player of the Year by the French Professional Footballers' Union. In that season's UEFA Champions League he scored five goals and added six more as the French side switched to the UEFA Cup and reached the final, losing to Valencia CF.

Michael Essien had spells in France with SC Bastia (2000 to 2003) and Olympique Lyonnais (2003 to 2005) before signing for Chelsea.

Souleymane Diawara was part of that Bordeaux side who lost 4-0 at Stamford Bridge in the 2008/09 group stage and drew 1-1 in France. Anelka scored in each game.

Cissé and Anelka were team-mates with PSG between 2000 and 2002, Gabriel Heinze joining them there in 2001/02.

Meanwhile in the Europa League Manchester City will be looking to heap more misery on Juventus when the two teams meet in their europa league group stage match on Thursday. You can watch all the live europa league football by signing up with us here on watchfootballnow.com.

The Citizens are currently sitting at the top of their group table after collecting all three points away to Red Bull Salzburg in their opening group stage match as goals from David Silva and Jo secured them a comfortable 2-0 win in Austria.

Juventus on the other hand were held to a disappointing 3-3 draw at home by Lech Poznan with Artjoms Rudnevs scoring a hat trick for the visitors which included an injury time equalizer. Pressure is slowly building on coach Luigi Del Neri after a disastrous start to the season that has seen Juventus win just one of their last five games.

Giorgio Chiellini should be available for selection for Juventus with the defender recovering from his ankle injury while City should welcome back Jerome Boateng though Joleon Lescott, Wayne Bridge, Micah Richards and Aleksandar Kolarov are all out. Watch Manchester City vs Juventus Live online on watchfootballnow.com, the leading source to watch live europa league soccer on the web.

The match will be live on Joy Sports on Multi TV