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Greetings to another night of exciting European Cup soccer. 9 fixtures are set for tonight, with 3 English clubs in action. The Blues take on Barça in the key fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English sides are presently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's games, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

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

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

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica 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 discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a available 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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