Newcastle United travel to Camp Nou on Wednesday night for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 tie against Barcelona in what most definitely is the biggest game in the club’s history—yes, no hyperbole.
The matchup enters its final stage with the outcome level at 1-1 after last week’s first leg at St James’ Park. Harvey Barnes gave Newcastle a late lead before Lamine Yamal converted a stoppage-time penalty to earn FCB an unfair draw away from Camp Nou.
Eddie Howe’s side, mind you, are unbeaten in their last six Champions League fixtures, winning three and drawing three. Not only that, but the Magpies seem to be clicking at the best possible time of the season as they followed the Barcelona draw with a 1-0 Premier League win at Chelsea.
Newcastle also won their last away European match, beating Qarabag 6-1 in the playoff round, and are once again in the fight for clinching continental football next season thanks to their recent back-to-back Premier League wins.
On the other side, Barcelona have won their last three Champions League home games by an aggregate score of 12-3 and have scored in each of their last 16 home matches in the competition, so it’s not that NUFC’s form will simply make it easy for the lads in Catalonia.
Barcelona have progressed from each of their last 10 knockout ties when drawing the first leg away from home, and they are coming off a 5-2 win in LaLiga last weekend, where their lead over Real Madrid sits at four points.
Newcastle won’t have Bruno Guimaraes available, as well as Fabian Schar and Lewis Miley, both of whom are still rehabbing their injuries. Sandro Tonali is expected to return in midfield, while Anthony Gordon is expected to lead the front after sitting on the bench the last time both teams met.
Barcelona are missing Jules Kounde, Frenkie de Jong, Alejandro Balde and Andreas Christensen, but as proven last week, all they need is a moment of magic—or luck—from the likes of Lamine Yamal to put Newcastle or any other team to the sword.
Here are some of Howe’s Wisdom Nuggets, courtesy of NUFC.co.uk
On Tonali’s fitness…“We’ll have a look at it today. Today’s the first day we’ve seen him. (It’s) an opportunity for hopefully him to train, if he feels strong enough. We’ll make a decision tomorrow.”
On whether a win on Wednesday would represent the biggest victory of his managerial career…“I know everyone likes to put a label on these things! But yeah, it probably would. It’s irrelevant, really, thinking about it, talking about it, because that’s the outcome. At the moment we’re still very much in the preparation phase. We’re trying to make sure that we get all of our gameplan, tactical delivery, individual performances to the right level. Afterwards will take care of itself.
“My thoughts, everyone’s thoughts, the players’ thoughts, are just (about) trying to deliver our best and time our best performances for the big moments. Of course, that’s tomorrow.”
On the importance of not looking too far ahead…“It’s all about the here and now, and the here and now is trying to prepare the game as best we can. A lot of work’s gone into these two games, as it does with every game that we have to play now. To give the players the best chance of winning the game, a lot of work goes in beforehand, so that’s what we’re focused on.
“I really don’t like answering hypothetical questions about what the future may hold. Win or lose, the game goes on and we’ve got a massive, massive game at the weekend, so I don’t really want to heap too much pressure on the players. I just want them to try and execute the best performance that they can.”
On Miley and Willock…“Lewi’s not with the squad, unfortunately. He’s trained at home today, so we’re probably looking at the other side of the international break now for Lewi now. It’s just taking a little bit longer than we hoped.
“Joe Willock has travelled with us. We’ll look at him in training today, and fingers crossed he’ll be fine.”
Date: Wednesday, March 18th
Kick-off: 18:45 BST / 13:45 EST
Location: Camp Nou, Barcelona (England)
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