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Welcome to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup football. Nine fixtures are scheduled for tonight, including 3 British teams in action. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the evening, whilst Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway point of the group phase, so the standings is taking form. All six British clubs are currently in the top 12, but there are only two pts between 5th and 16th position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's matches, all kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• Ajax 0-1 Benfica (5.45pm)
• Union SG and Galatasaray level at 0-0 (17:45)
• Juventus face Bodo/Glimt
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Marseille v Newcastle
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues side. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a available 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

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