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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting Champions League soccer. 9 games are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 British clubs in action. Chelsea face Barcelona in the key match of the night, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the midway point of the group stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts between fifth and 16th place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's matches, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea lineup. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, won by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League win over Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a available twelve and direct qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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