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Greetings to a fresh evening of electrifying European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for this evening, featuring 3 English clubs in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the standout fixture of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the group phase, so the rankings is beginning to form. All six British sides are presently in the top 12, but there are only 2 points between 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are this evening's matches, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea team. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory against City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.