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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for tonight, with 3 English teams in play. The Blues face Barça in the standout fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway point of the group stage, meaning the rankings is beginning to form. All six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between 5th and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, all starting at 8pm unless stated:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (17:45)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Barcelona take on Chelsea
• 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 are included in the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a available 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “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 version of Maradona is handling for that.