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Welcome to another night of electrifying European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for this evening, including three English clubs in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the key match of the night, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the group stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only two points separating 5th and 16th place, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

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

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.