Champions League Matches This Evening: Manchester City v Bayer Leverkusen & Additional Games

Greetings to a fresh evening of electrifying Champions League football. Nine fixtures are set for tonight, including three English teams in play. The Blues take on Barça in the standout fixture of the evening, whilst The Magpies visit Marseille and Manchester City welcome Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

We're at the halfway point of the league phase, meaning the rankings is taking form. All six British sides are currently in the upper twelve, however there are only 2 points separating 5th and 16th position, thus there's a sense of volatility about the entire situation. Everything is to play for.

This Evening's Games

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

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

Team News

Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Chelsea team. Out go Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Pedro and Delap.

Yamal is in the starting lineup for Barça; Rashford is among the substitutes.

The Blues (probable 4-3-3) Sanchez; Reece James, Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho.

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

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

Subs: Wojciech Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Bardghji.

Official Slavko Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

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

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has earned Jose Mourinho’s Benfica a 1-0 lead away to the Dutch side.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Even though Newcastle arrived in the south of France coming off their confidence-boosting two-one home English top-flight victory against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole on the road win since early April came in Brussels at Union SG.

It's not that Howe was eager to discuss the mental side of this away form issue. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the coach, whose team are 6th in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and automatic progression to the knockout phase nearly secured. “I don’t know if you can compare them.”

A dedicated live feed is available for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute equivalent of Maradona is on duty for that.