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Welcome to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 fixtures are scheduled for this evening, including 3 English teams in play. The Blues face Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, while Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is taking form. Each of the six British teams are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea side. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the knockout phase 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 on duty for that.