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Greetings to a fresh evening of exciting Champions League soccer. 9 games are planned for this evening, featuring 3 English clubs in action. The Blues face Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the league phase, so the table is starting to take shape. Each of the six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts between 5th and 16th place, so there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s games, all starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues lineup. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the MBM version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.