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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League football. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, including 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barça in the key fixture of the evening, while Newcastle visit the French side and City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway stage of the group phase, so the table is starting to take shape. Each of the six British sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only two points separating fifth and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s fixtures, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a available 12 and direct qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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