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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup football. 9 matches are planned for tonight, featuring 3 English teams in action. The Blues take on Barça in the marquee fixture of the night, whilst The Magpies travel to Marseille and Manchester City host Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway point of the league stage, so the rankings is taking form. All six British teams are currently in the top 12, but there are only two points separating fifth and 16th place, so there's a hint of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, all kicking off at 8pm unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

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

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

The Blues (possible four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Marc Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Garnacho.

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Slavko Vincic (Slovenia).

Past Meetings

The sole past encounter involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won by an emerging superstar from Côte d'Ivoire. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's 6th-minute strike has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead at Ajax.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, Benfica and Bilbao in the Champions League, their only away victory since early April came in the Belgian capital at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a possible twelve 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 Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.