The Magpies won't take anything for granted going into the second leg against the team from Azerbaijan
Newcastle United's Jacob Murphy and Eddie Howe
Newcastle United's Jacob Murphy and Eddie Howe
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Jacob Murphy has offered a snippet from the Newcastle United leadership group on the approach to the second leg of the Champions League play-off against Qarabag.
The Magpies thrashed Qarabag 6-1 in Baku last week and are all but through to the last 16 of the competition, where they will play Barcelona or Chelsea.
But Murphy refuses to start thinking about what will come next and insists the players are cool and calm going into the second leg, know there is another 90 minutes to go.
Murphy told Chronicle Live: "We're calm after a super night like in Baku.
"There's excitement already going into the next game, and there always has to be calm because things aren't as bad as they seem, and things aren't as good as they seem."
Newcastle slumped to a 3-2 defeat in their last home game against Brentford just a fortnight ago. They were booed off but since then wins at Tottenham Hotspur, Aston Villa in the FA Cup and then Qarabag away in the play-offs have eased tensions on Tyneside.
United lost 2-1 away to Man City on Saturday night but the mood is still good behind the scenes.
Murphy said: "We've always floated in that nice zone of never too high, never too low. It sounds horrible, but that's where we've had our success.
"We don't get carried away, we had a tough time of it a couple of weeks ago. But you can see how quickly it changes."
Fan concerns over the club's Premier League position though are still in the air on Tyneside. Eddie Howe said that the team were in a good place to challenge in the last 11 games of the season and make up the gap plus there are still two trophies to play for.
Murphy said: "Yeah, and we're in a good moment right now. The confidence is high, belief is high, we always trust in the process and the process is bearing fruit right now."
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