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Greetings to a fresh night of exciting European Cup football. 9 matches are planned for tonight, including three British clubs in action. Chelsea face Barcelona in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway stage of the league phase, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six British sides are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

Here are this evening's games, 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
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine pts from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.