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Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for tonight, with three English teams in play. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, meaning the table is beginning to form. Each of the six British sides are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 pts separating 5th and 16th place, so there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, each starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues side. Out go Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their restorative two-one home Premier League victory against Manchester City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available twelve and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.