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Greetings to another evening of exciting Champions League soccer. 9 matches are set for this evening, with three British clubs in play. The Blues face Barcelona in the standout match of the night, while Newcastle visit Marseille and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the halfway point of the league phase, meaning the standings is beginning to form. All six English sides are currently in the top 12, but there are only two pts between 5th and 16th position, so there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are this evening's games, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Chelsea lineup. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible 4-3-3) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

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

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an rising superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City 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 goal has earned Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil advantage away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole away win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and direct progression to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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