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Greetings to a fresh night of electrifying European Cup football. Nine matches are planned for this evening, including three British teams in action. Chelsea face Barça in the key fixture of the evening, while Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the halfway stage of the group phase, meaning the rankings is beginning to form. Each of the six English sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts between 5th and sixteenth place, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. It’s all up for grabs.

This Evening's Games

Here are tonight’s games, all kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Out go Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barça (possible 4-2-3-1): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Even though Newcastle traveled to the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can compare them.”

We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Scott Murray, the MBM equivalent of Diego Maradona is handling for that.