Good night and welcome to our protection of the second leg of Newcastle’s knockout play-off vs Qarabag. Eddie Howe’s males coasted to a 6-1 victory within the first leg in Baku, so there’s a sense tonight will likely be a procession.
Unsurprisingly, no workforce has ever surrendered a 5 objective lead mixture lead in main European competitions.
It subsequently could possibly be a superb likelihood for Howe to proceed boosting confidence into gamers who’ve been struggling within the league as of late. Anthony Gordon scored 4 first half objectives from centre ahead final Wednesday, however struggled to get himself into the sport in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester Metropolis on the weekend. Newcastle have been capable of get their speedster in behind in opposition to Metropolis’s excessive line – Qarabag will certainly should play with one tonight – however he lacked gamers to hyperlink up with. Howe appears to be backing the Gordon up prime, Nick Woltemade within the midfield choice for the rest of the season so any likelihood to gel that mixture, with subsequent 12 months’s European hopes hanging by a thread, must be taken.
Conversely, it could possibly be an opportunity for Howe to get minutes into some younger legs and hold his bench contemporary. Malik Thiaw, who scored within the first leg, is suspended and Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth are nonetheless injured, so there’s an ideal alternative to re-introduce Sven Botman who returned to coaching this week and is awaiting the outcomes of a late health take a look at.
Yoane Wissa was additionally again in coaching, so might come into begin – it will do a few of Newcastle’s entrance line gamers no hurt to have a relaxation with the outcome all however safe having travelled from Birmingham to Baku to Manchester to house all throughout the final 10 days. William Osula is one other participant who might do with some minutes up entrance – he has struggled for objectives this season.
Loads of likelihood to experiment or actually flip the screw for Newcastle, hopefully Gurban Gurbanov has instructed his gamers to chase the not possible so we will take pleasure in an open sport. That is their first ever knockout match within the Champions League, nothing to lose!
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