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Welcome to another night of thrilling Champions League soccer. Nine matches are scheduled for this evening, with 3 British teams in play. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the standout match of the night, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the league phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six English sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 points separating fifth and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

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

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League win over Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is on duty for that.