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Greetings to a fresh night of exciting European Cup soccer. 9 fixtures are set for tonight, with three British clubs in play. Chelsea face Barça in the standout match of the evening, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway stage of the group stage, so the standings is starting to take shape. All six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts separating fifth and 16th position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

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

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

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

Initial Game Reports

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 lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital 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 different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with nine pts from a possible 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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