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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting Champions League football. 9 matches are set for this evening, featuring 3 British clubs in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, whilst Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway stage of the league stage, so the standings is beginning to form. All six British teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts separating fifth and 16th place, thus there's a hint of uncertainty about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• 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 all come into the Blues lineup. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a possible twelve and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.