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Welcome to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 matches are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 English clubs in play. The Blues face Barça in the standout fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway point of the league phase, meaning the table is beginning to form. Each of the six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th place, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Match Schedule

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

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

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

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

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

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible 12 and direct qualification to the knockout phase 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 Diego Maradona is on duty for that.