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Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, including three English teams in action. The Blues face Barça in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's games, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Out go Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

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

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.