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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting Champions League football. Nine fixtures are scheduled for tonight, with 3 English clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barcelona in the key fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the group phase, meaning the standings is taking form. All six English sides are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points separating fifth and 16th place, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s matches, all starting at 8pm unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

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

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

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

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home English top-flight victory over Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 points from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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