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Greetings to another evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 English teams in play. Chelsea face Barcelona in the key fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the group stage, so the table is beginning to form. Each of the six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

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

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a available twelve and direct qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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