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Greetings to another night of thrilling Champions League football. Nine fixtures are planned for tonight, including 3 British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway point of the league phase, so the rankings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts separating 5th and 16th place, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• 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
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising star 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 early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

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 sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.