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Greetings to another evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 matches are scheduled for tonight, with three British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barça in the standout match of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the halfway stage of the league phase, meaning the table is beginning to form. Each of the six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between 5th and 16th position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

Match Schedule

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

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, won by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. 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 two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible twelve 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 Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.