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Welcome to another night of exciting Champions League football. 9 games are set for this evening, featuring 3 English clubs in play. The Blues take on Barcelona in the key match of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, meaning the standings is beginning to form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between fifth and 16th place, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

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

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

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

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is handling for that.