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Welcome to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League football. Nine games are scheduled for this evening, including 3 English teams in play. The Blues take on Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, while The Magpies visit the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway stage of the league phase, meaning the standings is taking form. All six English sides are presently in the top 12, however there are only two points between 5th and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

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

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and direct 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 minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.