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Welcome to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup football. 9 matches are scheduled for tonight, with three British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barça in the key match of the evening, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and City host Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, so the standings is beginning to form. All six English teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s fixtures, all kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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