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Welcome to another night of electrifying Champions League football. Nine matches are set for this evening, with three English teams in action. Chelsea face Barça in the marquee match of the evening, while Newcastle visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the midway stage of the league stage, meaning the standings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between 5th and sixteenth position, so there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea team. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Sanchez; James, Wesley Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (possible 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a available 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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