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Greetings to another night of electrifying Champions League soccer. Nine fixtures are planned for this evening, including three English clubs in action. The Blues face Barcelona in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the midway stage of the league phase, so the rankings is beginning to form. Each of the six British clubs are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points separating fifth and 16th position, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. Everything is to play for.

Match Schedule

Here are tonight’s fixtures, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Alejandro Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao join the Blues lineup. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barcelona (probable four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Historical Context

The sole past encounter between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2003-04, claimed by an rising superstar from Ivory Coast. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Dahl's sixth-minute strike has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead away to Ajax.

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 over City on the weekend, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and direct progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

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