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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League football. 9 matches are planned for this evening, featuring 3 British teams in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the key match of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points between 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s games, each starting at 8pm 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
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Lineup Changes

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

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.