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Greetings to another night of exciting Champions League soccer. 9 fixtures are set for tonight, with three British teams in play. Chelsea face Barça in the standout fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the group stage, meaning the standings is beginning to form. Each of the six British teams are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a hint of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s matches, all starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• 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 Blues side. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a available twelve and direct progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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