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Greetings to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup soccer. 9 games are scheduled for this evening, including three English teams in play. Chelsea meet Barcelona in the key fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the league phase, meaning the table is starting to take shape. All six British clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points separating 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's fixtures, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (17:45)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Dortmund v Villarreal
• Leverkusen visit Man City
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Qarabag play Napoli
• Slavia Prague v Athletic Bilbao

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal during the opening period of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win over Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a possible twelve and direct qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM version of Maradona is on duty for that.