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Greetings to a fresh night of exciting European Cup soccer. 9 matches are set for this evening, with 3 English clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the marquee match of the night, while The Magpies visit the French side and City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the group phase, meaning the standings is beginning to form. All six English sides are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts between fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are this evening's fixtures, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

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

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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