Newcastle United have discovered their eight Champions League league phase opponents after the draw was held on Thursday evening, including a trip to reigning champions PSG.
Amid all the turmoil of missed targets and Alexander Isak’s desire to leave the club, the excitement for Newcastle United’s return to the Champions League has been lost.
It’s been a difficult summer for Eddie Howe and his team, with a lot of the optimism gained from qualification and the Carabao Cup triumph being drained away during the difficult transfer window.
But now it’s time for everyone to get giddy again, as Newcastle’s Champions League campaign has now been set in stone after the draw.
Here is who the Magpies will be facing in the league phase of Europe’s top competition.
Newcastle United's draw card from the 2023/24 Champions League.
Photo by Valerio Pennicino – UEFA/UEFA via Getty Images
Who Newcastle United will face in the Champions League
The Champions League league phase draw was held in Monaco on Thursday evening, and after plenty of dithering and long explanations of the rules, the fixtures were finally confirmed.
Newcastle will play two teams from each of the four pots, one home and one away, and their full list of opponents is:
Pot 1: Barcelona (H)
Pot 1: Paris Saint-Germain (A)
Pot 2: Bayer Leverkusen (A)
Pot 2: Benfica (H)
Pot 3: Marseille (A)
Pot 3: PSV Eindhoven (H)
Pot 4: Club Athletic (H)
Pot 4: Union SG (A)
Newcastle couldn’t have been given a much tougher selection of games from Pot 1, as they will face La Liga champions Barcelona at St. James’ Park and Champions League holders Paris Saint-Germain away, in a rematch of their great clashes in 2023.
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With Benfica, PSV and Athletic also heading to Tyneside and trips to Bayer Leverkusen, Marseille and Union SG on the cards, it’s a very difficult draw for the Magpies.
Can Newcastle United qualify for the Champions League knock-out stages?
The Champions League looks a lot different to when Newcastle last competed in it in 2023-24.
Instead of the 32 teams being split over groups of four and playing each other twice, all 36 teams are placed in a single league table.
The top eight go through automatically to the last 16, while teams placed 9th-16th are drawn against those positioned 17th-24th in a league phase playoff to fill out the remaining eight places. Teams positioned 25th-36th are eliminated.
The format did claim one upset last year with RB Leipzig failing to go through, but otherwise, the top teams on paper all made it to the knockout stage, including every English side.
Newcastle have some tough fixtures and still need to strengthen their squad to deal with the extra burden of the competition, but something would have gone drastically wrong if they do not at least finish between 17th and 24th.