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Welcome to another night of exciting Champions League football. 9 fixtures are planned for tonight, featuring three English teams in action. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the marquee fixture of the evening, while The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the group stage, so the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 points between fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine points from a possible 12 and direct progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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