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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League football. Nine matches are planned for this evening, with 3 English teams in action. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway point of the league stage, meaning the table is starting to take shape. All six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points separating 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a hint of volatility about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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