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Welcome to another night of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 games are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 English clubs in play. The Blues meet Barça in the key fixture of the night, while The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the league stage, so the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English sides are presently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts separating fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's games, all starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a available twelve and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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