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Greetings to another night of thrilling European Cup soccer. Nine games are set for tonight, including three English clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the key fixture of the night, while The Magpies visit Marseille and City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway point of the group phase, meaning the rankings is beginning to form. All six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

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

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side 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 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 Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is handling for that.