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Welcome to a fresh night of thrilling Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for tonight, featuring 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barça in the key match of the night, while The Magpies visit the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway stage of the league phase, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts separating 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's fixtures, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a possible 12 and direct progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.