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Greetings to another evening of thrilling Champions League soccer. Nine matches are planned for tonight, with three English clubs in play. The Blues face Barcelona in the key match of the night, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and City welcome Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the midway stage of the group phase, so the rankings is beginning to form. Each of the six British clubs are currently in the top 12, but there are only 2 pts separating 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of volatility about the entire situation. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

Here are this evening's fixtures, all starting at 8:00 PM except where noted:

• Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm)
• Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45)
• 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, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues side. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

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

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

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting between Marseille and Newcastle was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a notable history.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute goal has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 advantage away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although Newcastle traveled to the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their only on the road win since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the last 16 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 MBM version of Maradona is on duty for that.