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Welcome to another night of exciting Champions League football. 9 fixtures are set for this evening, with 3 English teams in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, whilst Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the midway point of the group stage, so the rankings is beginning to form. Each of the six British sides are presently in the top 12, however there are only two points between 5th and 16th position, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's fixtures, each starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a possible twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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