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Welcome to a fresh night of electrifying Champions League soccer. 9 fixtures are scheduled for tonight, including three British clubs in action. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, so the table is taking form. All six English teams are presently in the top 12, but there are only two pts separating 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a hint of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea side. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Substitutes: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, 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 Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.