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Greetings to a fresh evening of exciting Champions League football. Nine matches are planned for this evening, with 3 English teams in play. Chelsea meet Barça in the marquee fixture of the night, while Newcastle visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the group phase, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are presently in the top 12, but there are only 2 points separating 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a hint of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

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

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

Lineup Changes

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

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.

The Blues (possible 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League win against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.