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Greetings to another evening of electrifying European Cup soccer. Nine games are set for tonight, with 3 British clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the marquee match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the league stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts separating fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s games, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues team. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since early 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 distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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