Champions League Fixtures Tonight: Manchester City v Bayer Leverkusen & More

Welcome to another night of thrilling European Cup football. Nine matches are planned for this evening, with 3 British teams in play. Chelsea face Barça in the key fixture of the night, while Newcastle travel to the French side and Manchester City host Bayer Leverkusen.

League Table

It's the midway point of the group stage, so the standings is starting to take shape. All six British teams are presently in the top 12, however there are only 2 points separating fifth and sixteenth place, thus there's a whiff of uncertainty about the whole thing. All remains open.

Match Schedule

These are tonight’s fixtures, each kicking off at 8:00 PM unless stated:

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

Lineup Changes

Wesley Fofana, Caicedo, Garnacho, Malo Gusto and Estevao all come into the Blues lineup. Dropped are Adarabioyo, Santos, Gittens, Joao Pedro and Delap.

Lamine Yamal starts for Barcelona; Rashford is on the bench.

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

Subs: Kjell Scherpen, Tosin Adarabioyo, Benoit Badiashile, Liam Delap, Jamie Bynoe-Gittens, Santos, Joao Pedro, Hato, George, Joshua Acheampong, Guiu, Facundo Buonanotte.

Barça (probable 4-2-3-1): Joan Garcia; Jules Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Balde; Garcia, De Jong; Lamine Yamal, Lopez, Ferran Torres; Lewandowski.

Subs: Szczesny, Kochen, Raphinha, Marcus Rashford, Christensen, Marc Casado, Gerard, Olmo, Noah Darvich, Dro Fernandez, Roony Bardghji.

Referee Vincic (Slovenian).

Previous Encounters

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

Early Match Updates

Just one goal in the first half of the two early games. Samuel Dahl's sixth-minute goal has given Benfica under Mourinho a 1-0 advantage away to Ajax.

Newcastle’s Trip to Marseille

Although The Magpies arrived in the French south fresh from their restorative two-one home Premier League win against City on the weekend, and having defeated Union SG, the Portuguese side and Athletic Bilbao in the European Cup, their sole away win since the start of April came in Brussels at Union SG.

Not that Howe was overly keen to talk about the psychological aspect of this away form issue. “The Champions League is different to domestic games,” said the coach, whose team are sixth in the European table, with nine pts from a possible 12 and automatic progression 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. Murray, the minute-by-minute version of Maradona is on duty for that.