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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for tonight, with 3 English clubs in action. The Blues meet Barcelona in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is taking form. All six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s games, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea team. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

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

Early Match Updates

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

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since early 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 different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.