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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League football. 9 games are set for tonight, featuring three English teams in action. The Blues meet Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, while Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway stage of the league stage, so the table is taking form. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between fifth and sixteenth position, so there's a whiff of volatility about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's games, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their restorative two-one home Premier League victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a possible 12 and automatic 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 MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.