The teams are out. Angel Di Maria looks particularly stonefaced in Glasgow, as does Rangers’ Fabio Silva, who played briefly for Benfica in his youth, but then made his name at Porto. The Portuguese was excellent in the first leg, I thought.
This is a fascinating West Ham squad at the moment. In Paqueta, Bowen, Kudus, Alvarez they have some elite talent, and yet it still feels very old school West Ham. And I’m not talking about Bobby Moore. More Kevin Nolan. Not that I don’t like Kevin Nolan. But you know what I mean.
This is worth a read. Aubemeyang is on the Marseille bench tonight, with the French side 4-0 up on Villarreal from the first leg.
Ibrox is going to be absolutely rocking tonight. The team is on a rich run of form, Benfica is a pearler of a European tie and there will also be tributes to Thomas McAllister, a fan who lost his life in Lisbon after the first leg.
Team news
Villarreal v Marseille
Villarreal: Reina, Femenia, Bailly, Mandi, Cuenca, Coquelin, Capoue, Parejo, Goncalo Guedes, Gerard, Sorloth.
Subs: Mosquera, Comesana, Jorgensen, Trigueros, Morales, Baena, Altimira, Akhomach.
Marseille: Pau Lopez, Meite, Mbemba, Balerdi, Merlin, Clauss, Kondogbia, Ounahi, Veretout, Ndiaye, Sarr.
Subs: Aubameyang, Harit, Moumbagna, Correa, Blanco, Soglo, Tunkadi, Luis Henrique.
West Ham v Freiburg
West Ham: Fabianski, Coufal, Mavropanos, Zouma, Cresswell, Soucek, Alvarez, Kudus, Bowen, Lucas Paqueta, Antonio.
Subs: Johnson, Ward-Prowse, Phillips, Ings, Ogbonna, Areola, Aguerd, Earthy, Casey, Mubama, Orford, Knightbridge.
Freiburg: Atubolu, Sildialli, Ginter, Gulde, Gunter, Hofler, Doan, Eggestein, Holer, Grifo, Sallai.
Subs: Lienhart, Szalai, Keitel, Kubler, Adamu, Muller, Muslija, Philipp, Uphoff, Makengo, Rohl, Gregoritsch.
Rangers v Benfica
Rangers: Butland, Tavernier, Goldson, Souttar, Yilmaz, Diomande, Lundstram, Scott Wright, Lawrence, Silva, Dessers.
Subs: Cantwell, Matondo, Roofe, Davies, McCrorie, Barisic, King, Raskin, McCausland, Yfeko, Fraser, McKinnon.
Benfica: Trubin, Bah, Silva, Otamendi, Aursnes, Neves, Florentino, Di Maria, Rafa Silva, Neres, Marcos Leonardo.
Subs: Fernandez, Morato, Arthur Cabral, Kokcu, Tengstedt, Joao Mario, Soares, Rollheiser, Araujo, Kokubo, Gouveia.
Slavia Prague v Milan
Slavia Prague: Stanek, Vlcek, Ogbu, Zima, Zmrzly, Holes, Dorley, Doudera, Provod, Wallem, Chytil.
Subs: Tijani, Zafeiris, Dominik Pech, van Buren, Jurecka, Sevcik, Schranz, Mandous, Tomic, Sirotnik, Jurasek, Konecny.
Milan: Maignan, Calabria, Gabbia, Tomori, Hernandez, Adli, Musah, Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao, Giroud.
Subs: Bennacer, Reijnders, Jovic, Okafor, Kalulu Kyatengwa, Chukwueze, Kjaer, Thiaw, Terracciano, Sportiello, Nava.
Preamble
Hello world! Thursday is the new Wednesday, haven’t you heard? An evening for the football hipsters.
What, you’ve never heard of new Benfica wonderkid João Neves?! Ha! He’s got higher-waisted shorts than Javier Zanetti and Scott Parker, an engine like a young James Milner and the vision of a teenage Rui Costa. Stick that up your Champions League and smoke it.
The point is, there are dozens of little storylines here. Some well-thumbed, some waiting to be explored. We have eight second legs on offer in the early kick-offs (5.45pm GMT), and eight matches in the lates (8pm GMT, which will be brought to you later by Rob Smyth).
The 5.45pm (GMT) kick offs:
Rangers v Benfica (2-2 agg)
West Ham v Freiburg (0-1 agg)
Slavia Prague v Milan (2-4 agg)
Villarreal v Marseille (0-4 agg)