Newcastle’s biggest-ever Champions League win. The first time the Magpies had scored six goals in any European fixture. Anthony Gordon becoming the first Newcastle player to score four goals in a European game. Gordon also becoming the first Magpies player to make it to ten goals in a single season in the Champions League.
Oh, and Eddie Howe’s side also effectively guaranteeing their place in the last 16 of this season’s competition, rendering next week’s second leg on Tyneside irrelevant. The 5,000-mile round trip to Baku is the longest ever undertaken by an English side in Europe. Guarantee a night like this, and Newcastle will happily embark on it every night of the week.
Qarabag were dreadful, looking much more like the side that had also shipped six goals to Liverpool in their final group game rather than the team that held Chelsea to a draw earlier in the competition.
Newcastle still had to beat them though, and their first-half attacking, as they scored five goals without reply before the break, was scintillating. Gordon excelled as a central striker, with Nick Woltemade every bit as impressive just behind him as a ‘number ten’. Finally, Eddie Howe might have found his most effective attacking line-up.
Newcastle’s start was sensational, with the visitors exploiting huge gaps in the Qarabag defence to score two goals in the opening eight minutes.
The first was sparked by a wonderful through ball from Dan Burn, who flicked the ball with the outside of his foot to send Gordon breaking into the box to claim his first goal of the night by angling a first-time strike into the far corner.
The goal took Gordon ahead of Alan Shearer as Newcastle’s highest-scoring goalscorer in a single European season. By the end of night, with ten to his name, he was miles clear of the Magpies’ greatest number nine.
Gordon’s opener delivered a dream start, but even better was to follow just five minutes later. Sandro Tonali’s long-range strike was blocked in the Qarabag box, but the ball broke invitingly towards Kieran Trippier on the left-hand side. The full-back curled a cross towards the far post, and as he towered above Qarabag’s defenders, Malick Thiaw angled a header into the far corner.
Newcastle were rampant, and they should have added a third goal before the quarter-hour mark. Gordon was released straight through the middle, but as he bore down on goal, the England international fired his shot straight at Qarabag’s shell-shocked goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski.
The ease with which the Magpies were playing their way through the Qarabag defence was remarkable, with both Gordon and Harvey Barnes having the freedom of Baku as they ran at the opposition. The pair combined slickly midway through the first half, but Barnes’ shot was well saved by Kochalski. Three minutes later, and when Barnes turned provider, setting up Gordon, the Qarabag goalkeeper made another fine stop.
Newcastle should have been four up at that stage. By the 34th minute of a truly incredible first half, they were. Goals three and four were both scored by Gordon, with the first of the pair coming from the penalty spot.
Matheus Silva blocked Barnes’ goal-bound shot with his trailing arm, and after a VAR check resulted in the award of a penalty, Gordon stepped up to score.
His night got even better two minutes later, as he completed the first senior hat-trick of his career. Qarabag’s defending had been dreadful all evening, but it reached its nadir as a succession of mistakes culminated in Kevin Medina effectively ushering Gordon through for a clear run on goal. Having casually strolled around Kochalski, Newcastle’s hat-trick hero rolled the ball into an empty net to become the third Magpies player to score a European hat-trick after Faustino Asprilla and Shearer.
Not, however, that he was going to stop there. In the final minute of the first half, more calamitous defending from the hosts enabled Gordon to break into the 18-yard box unopposed again. Having once again skipped past Kochalski, Gordon was sent sprawling by the Qarabag goalkeeper, and remaining on spot-kick duties, he calmly slammed home his second spot-kick of the night and eighth successful penalty of an increasingly-remarkable season.
Qarabag’s consolation came ten minutes the second half, with left-back Elvin Cafarquilyez firing an angled drive past Nick Pope, who should probably have made a better first of trying to keep the ball out.
Newcastle scored their sixth with 18 minutes left, with substitute Jacob Murphy’s shot finding the net via a deflection off a defender.