What Newcastle need to qualify from the Champions League group stage
- Newcastle sit third in a tight Group F with one game to go
- The Magpies host Milan on the final matchday
- Eddie Howe's side have to rely upon a favourable result from PSG's trip to Borussia Dortmund
Eddie Howe, much like his controversial employers, has his sights set skyward.
"I want my players to be remembered forever," Newcastle United's ambitious manager declared at the start of the season, "to become club legends." If Howe's side can somehow find a way to qualify from their desperately competitive Champions League group, they will have taken one giant leap towards the lofty status their coach craves.
Newcastle may be in an unfavourable position in this year's so-called 'Group of Death', outside the automatic qualification spots with their fate in the hands of others, but they have recovered from an even more treacherous deficit in the past.
Sir Bobby Robson's vintage from the 2002/03 campaign had zero points and just as many goals after their opening three games of the group stage. Yet, a scarcely conceivable sequence of three wins against Juventus, Dynamo Kyiv and Feyenoord hauled Newcastle into the next phase - which, back then, was a second group stage anticlimactically.
Two decades on, here's what Howe's side have to do to ensure they can still hear those iconic strains of the Champions League anthem after Christmas.
How can Newcastle reach the Champions League knockout stages?
Group F table
Rank | Team | Played | GD | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|
1. | Borussia Dortmund | 5 | +3 | 10 |
2. | PSG | 5 | +1 | 7 |
3. | Newcastle | 5 | 0 | 5 |
4. | Milan | 5 | -4 | 5 |
There are plenty of permutations and combinations left to play out but one thing is guaranteed: Newcastle simply have to defeat AC Milan when they welcome the Italians to St James' Park on Wednesday 13 December.
Yet, even a win may not be enough if Paris Saint-Germain earn three points from their visit to Borussia Dortmund's home ground on the same night.
Had Newcastle been able to cling on to a slender advantage against PSG in the penultimate group game, they would have been the masters of their own fate. Alas, the World Cup final referee Szymon Marciniak was directed to the pitch-side monitor by VAR and judged Tino Livramento to have illegally handled the ball. Demonstrating the same nerveless composure as that showpiece in Qatar, Kylian Mbappe stuffed his 98th-minute spot kick past Nick Pope to earn PSG a 1-1 draw.
Dortmund scored a penalty of their own in a 3-1 victory over AC Milan at San Siro on the same night, sealing their spot in the round of 16. The German giants began their European campaign with a limp 2-0 loss away to PSG but will have to avoid defeat if Newcastle are to have any chance of joining them in the knockouts.
A draw between Dortmund and PSG, leaving the French side with eight points, would be enough to see Newcastle through if the Magpies can best Milan. Triumph at St James' Park would also leave Newcastle on eight points but Howe's side boast a superior head-to-head record with PSG - the aggregate scoreline across the two fixtures stands at 5-2 in favour of those from Tyneside.
Unlike the Premier League's penchant for overall goal difference, the first tiebreaker in the Champions League group stage is head-to-head results.
It's not only in Newcastle's interests for Dortmund to avoid defeat against PSG - Edin Terzic's side can only finish top of Group F if they earn a point or three from their final group game, thereby avoiding other group winners in the round of 16.
Newcastle 2023/24 Champions League fixtures and results
Matchday | Date/KO time | Fixture/Result |
|---|---|---|
1 | 19/09/23 - 17:45 | Milan 0-0 Newcastle |
2 | 04/10/23 - 20:00 | Newcastle 4-1 PSG |
3 | 25/10/23 - 20:00 | Newcastle 0-1 Dortmund |
4 | 07/11/23 - 17:45 | Dortmund 2-0 Newcastle |
5 | 28/11/23 - 20:00 | PSG 1-1 Newcastle |
6 | 13/12/23 - 20:00 | Newcastle vs Milan |
READ THE LATEST NEWCASTLE NEWS, TRANSFER RUMOURS & GOSSIP
feed