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Greetings to another evening of electrifying Champions League football. Nine matches are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 British teams in action. The Blues meet Barça in the key fixture of the night, while The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway point of the group stage, meaning the standings is taking form. All six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points separating fifth and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

Here are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea team. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was eager to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a available twelve and direct progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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