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Welcome to a fresh night of exciting European Cup football. 9 matches are planned for tonight, including 3 English teams in action. The Blues face Barcelona in the marquee match of the evening, while The Magpies travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

Current Standings

It's the halfway point of the league phase, so the table is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points between 5th and 16th place, so there's a sense of volatility about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM except where noted:

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Out go Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is among the substitutes.

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

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

Substitutes: Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The sole past encounter between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. Bayer Leverkusen and Manchester City have not faced each other previously. Barcelona and Chelsea have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

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

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory over City on Saturday, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side 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 Eddie Howe was overly keen to discuss the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose team are 6th in the European table, with nine pts from a available 12 and direct qualification to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can draw parallels between them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is handling for that.