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Greetings to a fresh evening of thrilling European Cup soccer. Nine matches are set for tonight, featuring three British teams in action. The Blues face Barça in the marquee fixture of the evening, while The Magpies travel to Marseille and City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

We're at the midway point of the group stage, meaning the table is starting to take shape. All six English clubs are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between fifth and 16th position, so there's a hint of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

These are tonight’s fixtures, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

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

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Jorrel Hato, George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (probable four-two-three-one): Joan Garcia; Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, won by an emerging superstar from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have never met before. Barcelona and Chelsea have some past encounters.

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Dahl's sixth-minute sizzler has given Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League win against Manchester City on Saturday, and having beaten Union SG, the Portuguese side and Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away win since early April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the Champions League standings, with 9 pts from a possible twelve and direct progression 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. Scott Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.