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Greetings to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup football. Nine matches are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 British clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the standout match of the evening, while The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway point of the group phase, meaning the table is starting to take shape. Each of the six English teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between 5th and 16th position, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's matches, each starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal 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 a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a available 12 and direct qualification 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 MBM version of Maradona is handling for that.