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Greetings to another night of exciting European Cup soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for this evening, featuring 3 English clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the key fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, meaning the table is taking form. Each of the six British teams are presently in the upper twelve, however there are only two pts between 5th and sixteenth position, thus there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s games, each starting at 8pm unless stated:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (5.45pm)
• Bodo/Glimt v Juventus
• Chelsea v Barcelona
• Villarreal meet Dortmund
• Man City v Leverkusen
• Newcastle travel to Marseille
• Napoli v Qarabag
• Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague

Team News

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

Lamine Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Marcus Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

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

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

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their restorative two-one home English top-flight win over City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only on the road victory since the start of April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

Not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are sixth in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a available 12 and direct qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is handling for that.