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Welcome to another night of exciting Champions League soccer. 9 fixtures are planned for this evening, with 3 English clubs in play. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the marquee match of the evening, while The Magpies visit the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway stage of the league stage, meaning the standings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea team. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is handling for that.