Welcome to the Newcastle v Qarabag preview.
Tuesday 24th February and an 8pm kick-off.
Newcastle United bid to make the last sixteen of the Champions League this Tuesday night for just the second time in their history.
The Toon have the luxury of a five goal cushion going into this one after a tremendous 6-1 victory in the first leg and will be wanting to make an impression ahead of facing either Chelsea or Barcelona in the next round.
They’ll be facing a Qarabag team who had the weekend off ahead of this one and will be hoping for another positive result against English opposition having drawn with Chelsea earlier on in the season.
Form
Newcastle have played nine Champions League matches so far this season. The eight Swiss League matches saw United winning four, drawing two and losing two. Victories have been achieved over Union SG, Benfica, Bilbao and PSV, whereas score draws were gained on our travels to Leverkusen and PSG. We lost at home to Barcelona and away at Marseille. We scored seventeen goals in these matches and conceded seven. The fourteen points gained saw us finish twelfth in the thirty-six team league. We kicked off the knockout rounds in style, hammering Qarabag 6-1 away from home to take a healthy aggregate lead into this second leg.
Quarabag had to get through three two-legged play-offs to reach the group stage, beating Shelbourne 4-0, Shkendija 6-1 and Ferencvaros 5-4. In the group stage they won three, drew one and lost four of their eight matches. Wins came against Benfica, Copenhagen and Frankfurt whilst they held Chelsea to a 2-2 draw. They lost to Bilbao, Napoli, Ajax and Liverpool. They scored thirteen goals and conceded twenty-one. The ten points gained saw them finish twenty-second in the league. They’ll be looking to overturn a five-goal deficit to reach the last sixteen.
Last time out
The Toon travelled to Man City for a Premier League match on Saturday night and can count themselves desperately unlucky not to come away with at least a point from a gutsy performance. Man City took an early lead but Newcastle battled back when a corner was cleared into the path of Lewis Hall to find the bottom corner with a deflected effort from outside the box. Man City took the lead soon after but the Toon thought they’d equalised again when Dan Burn headed home an attacking free-kick. Unfortunately he was pushed into an offside position and the Toon were ludicrously punished with a disallowed goal. A second half of attacking pressure from NUFC failed to deliver a deserved equaliser but we left the Etihad with heads held high and ambitions of revenge in the upcoming FA Cup tie between the two sides.
Qarabag’s league match at the weekend was postponed, meaning their last match was the 6-1 defeat at home to the Toon.
Stat attack!
-This will be only the second time the two clubs have met in their entire history.
-Qarabag have previously played five competitive matches on English soil and lost them all.
-By full-time, Newcastle United will have proudly played one hundred and fifty competitive European matches.
Memorable match
The first ever game between the sides came last week and was certainly memorable for all the right reasons. Newcastle opened the scoring after just a few minutes through a Gordon strike and Thiaw doubled the advantage before Qarabag were able to draw breath. Three more strikes for Gordon (two from the penalty spot) made it 5-0 before half-time with only some incredible saves from the Qarabag ‘keeper preventing double figures. The second half was a more subdued affair and Qarabag had their moment of glory when pulling one back. There was still time for Murphy to net a fine finish and seal an emphatic away victory. Qarabag 1-6 Newcastle.
Played for both
Unfortunately, no one has yet had the honour of representing both teams, let’s instead take a look at some of our players who have provided fantastic European memories at St James’ Park down the years:
David Ginola was one of the most exciting players to ever wear the famous black and white. This was epitomised during a UEFA Cup second round tie at home to Ferencvaros in 96/97. When a corner was pinged over to him outside of the area, there seemed little danger, what was to follow was utterly outrageous! Wor Daveed controlled the ball on his knee, flicked it up with his right boot and then lashed home an unstoppable effort with his left past a completely stranded ‘keeper. This was one of the very best European goals scored by NUFC and is still talked about almost thirty years on.
Tino Asprilla was something of a European specialist in his time at NUFC, scoring nine goals in UEFA competitions. Two memories particularly stand out. Firstly, who could forget his bizarre celebration against Metz in the 96/97 UEFA Cup, swinging his shirt on the corner flag, earning a booking and suspension for the next match. Even better was to follow the next season. Tino famously ripped Barcelona apart with an incredible hat-trick against the Catalan giants in one of greatest nights of our modern history.
Alan Shearer led the line the last time NUFC made the last sixteen of the Champions League under the guidance of the one and only Sir Bobby Robson. Not content with firing home a winning penalty against Dynamo Kiev, he also scored a first half hat-trick in a 3-1 win over Bayer Leverkusen. When putting us 1-0 and then 2-1 up away at Inter Milan, the dream was on for a place in the quarter-finals until the Toon were cruelly cheated out of a win they truly deserved.
Managers
Eddie Howe after a 2-1 defeat away at Man City:
“A good effort physically. It’s been a tough run of fixtures. I want the players to empty, to give everything in the pursuit of winning. I thought we played with a good plan. The two goals we didn’t defend well enough, two errors. But I’m pleased with the effort. The league table isn’t what we wanted it to be. In part, it’s not based on tonight. We’re heading in the right direction. That’s the most important thing because it means long-term we’re going to be fine. We’re trying to win every game, not trying to over-think games. We don’t want to lose momentum. The feeling has been strong, togetherness is strong, you see that in the second half. Overall, the players are all out, doing the best for this football club.”
Gurban Gurbanov after a 6-1 defeat at home to NUFC:
“Unfortunately, we lost with such a score. We did not want to lose with such a score. My players could not recover after the first goals conceded. The opponent is a very fast playing team. Their preparation was also at a high level. We would like to thank our fans for being with our team until the end. The great thing was that the Champions League matches were held in Azerbaijan until February.”
Charity
Newcastle United fans food bank will once again be collecting opposite the Gallowgate end and gratefully receiving food, money and toiletries for those in need. Of particular interest are non-perishable food and drink items (such as noodles, pasta, rice, canned food, soup, cereal, cordial, long life milk etc) as well as toiletries such as shower gel, shampoo, toothpaste and sanitary products. Please give whatever you can, any donation is very much appreciated.
For further info and/or to donate online go to Newcastle Foodbank
Prediction
Eddie Howe has the opportunity to rest a number of key players during a completely hectic fixture schedule and I think he’ll do just that. Despite this, NUFC absolutely annihilated their opponents last week and I fancy another victory in this one. Newcastle have goals in them and fans will be expecting a repeat of last week in another fine win for the Toon. Newcastle 3-1 Qarabag (9-2 on aggregate)