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Greetings to another evening of electrifying European Cup football. Nine fixtures are planned for tonight, with three British clubs in play. Chelsea meet Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the halfway point of the group phase, meaning the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English teams are presently in the top 12, but there are only two points between 5th and 16th place, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

Match Schedule

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

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter involving Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. 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 two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win over City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 points from a available 12 and direct progression to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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