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Welcome to another night of exciting European Cup soccer. 9 games are scheduled for this evening, with 3 British teams in action. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the key match of the evening, while The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the halfway point of the group phase, so the rankings is taking form. All six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

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

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea team. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.