European Cup Fixtures This Evening: Manchester City v Bayer Leverkusen & Additional Games

Welcome to a fresh evening of exciting Champions League football. Nine matches are planned for tonight, with three British clubs in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the marquee fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the league stage, so the table is taking form. Each of the six English clubs are currently in the upper twelve, but there are only two points separating 5th and 16th position, so there's a sense of snakes and ladders about the whole thing. All remains open.

This Evening's Games

Here are this evening's games, all kicking off at 8pm except where noted:

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

Squad Updates

Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues team. Excluded are Tosin Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

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

Chelsea (probable four-three-three) Robert Sanchez; James, Fofana, Trevoh Chalobah, Cucurella; Malo Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Pedro Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

Substitutes: Jorgensen, Adarabioyo, Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Acheampong, Guiu, Buonanotte.

Barça (possible four-two-three-one): Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Eric Garcia, De Jong; Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Robert Lewandowski.

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

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

The only previous meeting between Newcastle and Marseille was the Europa League semi-final of 2004, claimed by an emerging star from Côte d'Ivoire. Manchester City and Bayer Leverkusen have never met before. Chelsea and Barcelona have some past encounters.

Initial Game Reports

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

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though The Magpies arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home English top-flight victory against City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise.

It's not that Eddie Howe was eager to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to domestic games,” said the manager, whose side are 6th in the Champions League standings, with nine points from a available twelve and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I am not sure if you can draw parallels between them.”

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