Marseille 2-1 Newcastle United post match reaction
Marseille 2-1 Newcastle United post match reaction
Newcastle United latest news: The predicted Champions League table makes very interesting reading for Eddie Howe’s side.
Newcastle United’s Champions League journey hit a bump in the road on Tuesday night when they were beaten by Marseille at Stade Velodrome. Despite taking an early lead, two strikes within five minutes of the second half by Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang flipped the game on its head and Eddie Howe’s side were unable to recover.
That defeat was just their second of the league phase, but continued a worrying trend away from home and that is something they will need to fix if they want to go deep in this competition. Elsewhere, Manchester City and Liverpool were beaten at home by Bayer Leverkusen and PSV Eindhoven, whilst Tottenham Hotspur suffered defeat against PSG.
Newcastle United face all three of those victorious teams in their final three league phase outings as they aim to reach the knockout stages of this competition for the first time in their history.
Nine points may already be enough to finish in the top-24, but they will be keen to improve their current position and get a favourable draw in the next round if possible. But is that a likely outcome?
Champions League predicted table
The data experts at OPTA have updated their predicted table following this week’s set of results. Newcastle United’s defeat at Marseille on Tuesday night saw them initially slip to eighth in the table, whilst a variety of results on Wednesday saw them move down another three places into 11th.
But will they stay there once all eight league phase matches have been played? Here, we take a look at how the experts at OPTA believe the Champions League league phase table will look at the end of those eight matches - plus the expected points totals of all 36 teams:
Bayern Munich = 18.17
PSG = 17.65
Real Madrid = 17.44
Inter Milan = 15.93
Manchester City = 15.53
Borussia Dortmund = 15.09
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Atalanta = 14.21
Liverpool = 14.15
Barcelona = 13.62
Sporting CP = 13.14
Bayer Leverkusen = 13.14
Tottenham Hotspur = 12.83
16) Newcastle United = 12.65
Galatsaray = 11.99
PSV Eindhoven = 11.50
Napoli = 11.27
Juventus = 10.97
Qarabag = 10.32
Royal Union Saint-Gilloise = 9.67
Marseille = 9.44
AS Monaco = 9.23
Pafos = 8.67
Club Brugge = 8.49
Eintracht Frankfurt = 7.50
Athletic Club = 6.87
Benfica = 6.85
Olimpiacos = 6.62
Villareal = 6.26
FC Copenhagen = 5.95
Slavia Praha = 5.83
Bodo/Glimt = 3.69
Ajax = 2.66
Kairat Almaty = 2.57
If the table does finish as predicted by OPTA, then Newcastle United would face a two-legged play-off match against Galatasaray to reach the round of 16. The Magpies would get home advantage in the second-leg of that match by virtue of finishing above their Turkish opponents.