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Greetings to another evening of electrifying Champions League football. 9 games are scheduled for tonight, with 3 English clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the standout fixture of the night, while The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

It's the halfway stage of the league stage, so the table is taking form. Each of the six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two pts between fifth and 16th position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

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

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road victory since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a possible 12 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 Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.