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Greetings to another evening of electrifying Champions League football. 9 matches are planned for this evening, featuring 3 British clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway stage of the league stage, meaning the table is starting to take shape. Each of the six British teams are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between 5th and 16th place, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s fixtures, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• 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
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine points 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.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.