🔗 Share this article Champions League Action This Evening: Marseille v Newcastle & More Greetings to another night of electrifying Champions League football. Nine matches are set for this evening, with 3 English teams in action. Chelsea take on Barça in the key fixture of the evening, whilst Newcastle travel to the French side and City host Leverkusen. Group Rankings We're at the halfway point of the group phase, so the rankings is taking form. Each of the six English teams are presently in the upper twelve, but there are only 2 points separating fifth and sixteenth position, so there's a sense of uncertainty about the entire situation. All remains open. This Evening's Games These are this evening's games, all starting at 8pm except where noted: Benfica lead Ajax 1-0 (5.45pm) Galatasaray 0-0 Union SG (17:45) Juventus face Bodo/Glimt Barcelona take on Chelsea Dortmund v Villarreal Leverkusen visit Man City Newcastle travel to Marseille Qarabag play Napoli Athletic Bilbao clash with Slavia Prague Team News Wesley Fofana, Moises Caicedo, Garnacho, Gusto and Estevao are included in the Chelsea side. Out go Adarabioyo, Santos, Jamie Gittens, Joao Pedro and Liam Delap. Lamine Yamal starts for Barça; Marcus Rashford is on the bench. The Blues (probable four-three-three) Sanchez; Reece James, Wesley Fofana, Chalobah, Cucurella; Gusto, Moises Caicedo, Enzo; Estevao, Neto, Alejandro Garnacho. Subs: Jorgensen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Bynoe-Gittens, Andrey Santos, Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Marc Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte. Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Ronald Araujo, Pau Cubarsi, Alejandro Balde; Garcia, Frenkie de Jong; Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Torres; Lewandowski. Substitutes: Wojciech Szczesny, Diego Kochen, Raphinha, Rashford, Andreas Christensen, Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Bernal, Dario Fernandez, Roony Bardghji. Referee Vincic (Slovenia). Previous Encounters The only previous meeting involving Newcastle and Marseille was the Uefa Cup semifinal of 2004, won 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 Only a single goal in the first half of the early fixtures. Samuel Dahl's 6th-minute sizzler has given Benfica under Mourinho a one-nil lead away to the Dutch side. Marseille v Newcastle Preview Although Newcastle arrived in the French south coming off their confidence-boosting 2-1 home Premier League victory against City on the weekend, and having beaten Union Saint-Gilloise, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their only away victory since the start of April came in Brussels at Union Saint-Gilloise. It's not that Howe was overly keen to discuss the psychological aspect of this travel sickness. “The European Cup is different to Premier League games,” said the manager, whose side are sixth in the European table, with 9 pts from a possible 12 and automatic qualification to the knockout phase almost within touching distance. “I don’t know if you can compare them.” We have a separate live blog for Chelsea v Barcelona. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Diego Maradona is on duty for that.