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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup soccer. 9 fixtures are planned for tonight, including 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barça in the key match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the midway stage of the group stage, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six British sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts separating 5th and 16th place, thus there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

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

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

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 side are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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