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Greetings to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup football. Nine matches are scheduled for tonight, with three English clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the marquee match of the night, while The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway point of the group stage, so the table is taking form. All six British clubs are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s games, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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