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Welcome to another night of thrilling Champions League soccer. Nine matches are scheduled for this evening, with three English teams in action. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee match 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 phase, so the standings is beginning to form. All six English clubs are presently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between 5th and 16th place, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• 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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home Premier League victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.