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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling Champions League soccer. 9 fixtures are scheduled for tonight, including three British teams in action. Chelsea face Barcelona in the key match of the evening, while Newcastle visit the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway point of the league stage, so the rankings is starting to take shape. All six British teams are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

These are this evening's fixtures, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea side. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Historical Context

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight win over City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a available 12 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 Maradona is on duty for that.