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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League football. 9 games are scheduled for this evening, featuring three British clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the standout match of the night, while The Magpies travel to the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the league stage, meaning the table is starting to take shape. All six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between 5th and 16th position, thus there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s games, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• 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 are included in the Blues side. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

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

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

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

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

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.