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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup soccer. 9 matches are planned for tonight, with 3 English teams in play. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the league stage, so the standings is taking form. All six British teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points separating 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues lineup. Out go Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Subs: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available twelve and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.