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Greetings to another night of electrifying Champions League soccer. 9 matches are set for this evening, featuring three British clubs in action. The Blues take on Barça in the standout match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to the French side and City welcome Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, so the standings is taking form. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 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 fixtures, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south coming off their restorative two-one home Premier League victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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