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Greetings to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup football. 9 fixtures are set for this evening, with three British clubs in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the marquee match of the night, while The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway point of the league stage, so the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts between fifth and 16th position, so there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a possible 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 equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.