Newcastle United travel to Paris on Wednesday to face Paris Saint-Germain at the Parc des Princes in the final round of the Champions League league phase.
Newcastle sit seventh in the standings on 13 points after a 3-0 home win over PSV Eindhoven last week, a result that secured at least a play-in place.
A win in Paris, however, would guarantee a top-eight finish and direct qualification to the last 16, removing potential games from an already-congested schedule.
Eddie Howe’s side have won four of their
seven Champions League matches this campaign but have managed just one win in their last four games across all competitions in a concern development during the toughest part of the season.
More worryingly, when playing away from home in Europe, Newcastle are without a win in their last two fixtures—and have scored once in their previous three away matches in all competitions. The Magpies already lost a game to a French side when they dropped a 2-1 matchup to Marseille earlier in the group stage.
PSG, meanwhile, are level on points with Newcastle and sit sixth due to tiebreakers despite a recent defeat at Sporting Lisbon. The Bleus have won five of their last six home matches in all competitions and are unbeaten in their final Champions League group game in six of the last seven seasons.
Newcastle may be without Fabian Schar and Bruno Guimaraes due to ankle injuries, while Jacob Murphy, Tino Livramento and Jamaal Lascelles remain sidelined.
Here are some of Howe’s Wisdom Nuggets, courtesy of NUFC.co.uk
On Joelinton and Bruno:
“Joe won’t make the game, he has had a scan, we don’t think it is a bad injury, but we think he will be out for a few weeks. He will miss a few games.
“Our other Brazilian, Bruno, is with us, and we will know more in the next few hours.”
On our last visit to PSG, which ended in a controversial 1-1 draw in November 2023:
“Memories coming back into the stadium, it was a good night for us, a great test for our development as a team at that time.
“We hung in there and protected our lead for so long. I was very proud of the performance overall.”
On Champions League momentum, seeking back-to-back wins after last week’s 3-0 win against PSV Eindhoven:
“We have to try and enjoy every moment; they are so precious. We want to enjoy it, experience all the highs and lows it brings.
“We are all determined to do as well as we can, this will be a great game for us tomorrow. We want to win. We are conditioned to be that way.”
On away form in the competition:
“The bigger the game, the harder the challenge, the more you must rise to it. There have been several questions asked about our away form, to handle pressure, to be resilient.
“This will be a really good game to try and answer some questions and be effective in every environment that we play, we will set up the team to do that and then will need them to play at their maximum.”
Howay!
- Date: Wednesday, January 28th
- Kick-off: 20:00 BST / 15:00 EST
- Location: Parc des Princes, Paris (England)
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