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Greetings to a fresh night of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for this evening, including three English clubs in play. The Blues face Barça in the standout match of the evening, while The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway stage of the group stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. All six British sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points separating fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, each starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

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

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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