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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League football. 9 fixtures are planned for this evening, featuring 3 British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee match of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway stage of the league stage, so the standings is beginning to form. All six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts between fifth and 16th place, thus there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

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

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.

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

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

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.