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Welcome to another evening of electrifying European Cup football. 9 fixtures are set for tonight, with three English teams in action. The Blues take on Barça in the key fixture of the night, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the league stage, so the table is taking form. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

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

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen 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 two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a possible 12 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 minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.