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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for tonight, with three English teams in play. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the league stage, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six British teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's fixtures, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

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

Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

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

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.