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Greetings to a fresh night of exciting Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, with 3 British teams in action. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the league stage, meaning the table is taking form. All six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies traveled to the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase 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 minute-by-minute equivalent of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.