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Greetings to a fresh night of thrilling Champions League soccer. 9 fixtures are planned for this evening, including 3 British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee match of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the group stage, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English teams are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points between fifth and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Match Schedule

Here are this evening's games, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible twelve and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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