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Welcome to a fresh evening of electrifying European Cup football. Nine games are scheduled for this evening, with 3 British teams in action. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the key match of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the league stage, meaning the table 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, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea lineup. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

The Blues (possible 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Subs: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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