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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League football. 9 matches are scheduled for this evening, including three British teams in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the standout match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway point of the group stage, meaning the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six British clubs are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

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

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

Team News

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

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know 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 handling for that.