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Greetings to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup football. Nine fixtures are set for tonight, including 3 English teams in play. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway point of the group stage, meaning the table is beginning to form. Each of the six British teams are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 pts separating 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's fixtures, 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
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barcelona (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

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

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France coming off their restorative 2-1 home Premier League victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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