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Greetings to a fresh evening of electrifying Champions League football. Nine games are scheduled for tonight, including three British teams in play. Chelsea face Barça in the marquee match of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the league phase, so the rankings is beginning to form. Each of the six English clubs are currently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea team. Out go Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea 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 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a available twelve and direct qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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