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Welcome to another evening of exciting European Cup football. 9 fixtures are set for this evening, with 3 English teams in action. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the marquee match of the evening, while Newcastle visit the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway point of the league stage, so the standings is starting to take shape. All six English teams are presently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th place, so there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s fixtures, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

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

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar 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 in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France coming off 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 Champions League, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the last 16 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 Maradona is handling for that.