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Welcome to another evening of electrifying Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are scheduled for this evening, featuring 3 British teams in action. The Blues take on Barcelona in the standout match of the night, whilst Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway point of the league stage, meaning the table is beginning to form. All six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts separating 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a whiff of volatility about the entire situation. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are this evening's matches, each starting at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semifinal of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. 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 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.