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Greetings to a fresh evening of exciting Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for this evening, including three English teams in play. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the group stage, meaning the table is taking form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points separating fifth and sixteenth place, so there's a hint of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's games, each starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a available 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

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