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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup football. Nine matches are set for this evening, featuring 3 English teams in play. The Blues take on Barcelona in the key match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway point of the group phase, so the table is taking form. Each of the six British sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8pm unless stated:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

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

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home English top-flight win over City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with nine pts from a possible twelve and automatic 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 Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.