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Greetings to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 matches are planned for this evening, including 3 English clubs in play. Chelsea take on Barça in the key fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six British sides are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

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

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and direct 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. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.