**Barcelona come to St James' Park on Thursday night as Newcastle United get their Champions League campaign underway.**
The atmosphere when St James' Park hosted their first Champions League game in 20 years two seasons ago was mindblowing, and everyone will be hoping that the Toon Army can recapture that magic on Thursday night to send a strong message to Barcelona.
On that fateful night two years ago, Newcastle emerged as 4-1 winners on the night against Paris Saint-Germain, sending shockwaves throughout the competition, but ultimately, Newcastle failed to qualify from the group stage to the knockouts.
This time around is very different as the new format sees Newcastle take on six opponents in a league format, three at home and three away, starting with Barcelona on Thursday.
Hansi Flick will be in the dugout on Thursday
Hansi Flick will be in the dugout at St James' Park on Thursday night
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Newcastle will have been feeling that they had a slight advantage over the visitors on Thursday night, as Barcelona manager Hansi Flick was due to serve a one-match touchline ban in the Champions League.
As we said when we reported on the ban before, we're not convinced that a touchline ban makes a whole lot of difference, but there could be a slight psychological advantage there.
However, it doesn't matter now as it seems Barcelona have won their appeal against the ban, which means Flick will be on the bench on Thursday, according to [Barca Blaugranes](https://www.barcablaugranes.com/barcelona-uefa-champions-league/100839/hansi-flick-to-be-on-bench-against-newcastle-after-barcelona-win-appeal-against-champions-league-sanction)
Hansi Flick is now on probation for a year with UEFA
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Rather than serving a ban for his conduct during the Champions League semi-final second-leg defeat to Inter Milan last season, Flick will now be on probation for a year, and any further misconduct will see the ban reinstated on top of whatever other punishment is handed out.
The €20,000 both he and his assistant Marcus Sorg picked up still stand, but the bans have now been postponed.
Again, we're not sure how much of a difference it would have made to the game if Flick wasn't on the touchline beyond that psychological boost, but it was nice to think we had something over them for a while.