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Welcome to another evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. Nine games are planned for tonight, with 3 English teams in play. The Blues face Barça in the key fixture of the night, while The Magpies visit the French side and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the group phase, so the standings is starting to take shape. Each of the six English teams are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two points separating fifth and sixteenth position, thus there's a whiff of snakes and ladders about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are tonight’s games, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Excluded are Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

Chelsea (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a notable history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle traveled to 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 Champions League, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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