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Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine matches are planned for tonight, including 3 British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle visit Marseille and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, meaning the standings is taking form. All six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's matches, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

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

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

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a available 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.