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Greetings to a fresh night of thrilling European Cup soccer. 9 games are planned for tonight, with three British clubs in play. The Blues meet Barcelona in the key match of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit the French side and Manchester City welcome Leverkusen.

Group Rankings

We're at the halfway stage of the group stage, so the standings is taking form. Each of the six English teams are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 pts between 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open.

Match Schedule

Here are this evening's matches, all starting at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea team. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Andrey Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

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

Chelsea (possible four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo Fernandez; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, Leo George, Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barcelona (possible 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

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

Referee Vincic (Slovenia).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2004, won by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have a peedie bit of history.

Initial Game Reports

Just one goal during the opening period of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute strike has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a one-nil lead away to the Dutch side.

Marseille v Newcastle Preview

Although The Magpies traveled to the French south coming off their restorative 2-1 home Premier League win against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the mental side of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is distinct from Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the European table, with 9 points from a available 12 and automatic progression to the last 16 nearly secured. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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