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Welcome to another night of thrilling Champions League soccer. 9 games are scheduled for tonight, featuring 3 English clubs in play. The Blues face Barça in the standout fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway stage of the group stage, meaning the standings is taking form. All six British sides are currently in the top 12, however there are only two pts between 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. It’s all up for grabs.

Tonight’s Fixtures

These are tonight’s matches, each kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao are included in the Blues lineup. Dropped are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Liam Delap.

Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench.

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

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

Barcelona (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski.

Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Dani Olmo, Bernal, Dro Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Vincic (Slovenian).

Past Meetings

The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semi-final of 2003-04, claimed by an emerging star from Ivory Coast. 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. Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has earned Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 lead at the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although Newcastle traveled to the French south fresh from their confidence-boosting two-one home Premier League victory over City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in the Champions League, their sole 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 mental side of this travel sickness. “The Champions League is distinct from domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with nine points from a possible twelve and direct qualification to the last 16 almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

We have a separate live blog for Barcelona vs Chelsea. Murray, the MBM version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.