Overview
Newcastle United hope an encouraging victory over Manchester City can give them more motivation in the Champions League, with a trip to Marseille.
Eddie Howe's side struggled in the early stages of the Premier League, but their season really took off with a 2-1 win over Man City in St. Petersburg. James' Park, thanks to Harvey Barnes's second-half double.
Newcastle's form in Europe is much more impressive than domestically. They have won their last three Champions League games and are aiming to win four in a row for the first time in club history.
Since losing to Barcelona, Newcastle have defeated Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica and Athletic Bilbao in turn. Notably, they kept a clean sheet in all three of those victories.
Up front, the "Magpies" have scored 10 goals in 4 Champions League matches this season, 6 more than the previous record (6 goals in 6 matches in the 2023-2024 season).
Newcastle are still one of only five teams this season to have a goal conversion rate of 20% or more (10 goals after 50 shots). This shows that Eddie Howe's side may have a hard time maintaining their ability to score at some point.
The key factor in the "Magpies' successes" is Anthony Gordon, who has been directly involved in 5 goals this season (4 goals, 1 assist), only behind Galatasaray's Victor Osimhen (6 goals). In Newcastle's history in the Champions League, Alan Shearer is the only player to make more impressions in a single season, with 7 goals in the 2002-2003 season (6 goals, 1 assist).
Bruno Guimaraes is also their "brain" in midfield, leading the league in the number of passes that broke the opponent's defense with 9 times - equal to Bayern Munich's Joshua Kimmich.
Overall, Atletico Madrid (35) are the only team to have more defensive passes than Newcastle (32) this season, forcing Roberto De Zerbi to question how to organize Marseille's defense.
De Zerbi and Howe are very familiar with each other, as the Italian strategist previously led Brighton. In the previous three confrontations in all competitions, each coach had a victory and a draw, promising an exciting match.
The previous 3 matches between Howe and De Zerbi saw a total of 11 goals (New Newcastle 6, Brighton 5), an average of 3.7 goals per match.
If they want to overcome Howe in another top-flight match, Marseille can put their faith in the duo Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Igor Paixao, who have jointly scored three goals in the Champions League this season. With two assists from Aubameyang and one from Paixao, this is also the pair's most impressive achievement of the season.
Head-to-head record
The two teams have only met twice before in the European arena, when Marseille won 2-0 at home after a goalless draw in the first leg, thereby qualifying for the UEFA Cup final 2003-2004 before losing to Valencia.
Newcastle have previously faced French sides eight times away from home in European competition. And their only win (3 draws, 3 losses) was a 4-0 win over Sochaux in the UEFA Cup in November 2004.
Marseille's record against English sides has been even worse, as they have failed to win in their last 12 European games (D3 L9). The French side's most recent win came against Chelsea in December 2010 (1-0 in the Champions League), and they have scored just five goals in those 12 games.
Score prediction: Marseille 2-1 Newcastle
The match between Marseille - Newcastle takes place at 3:00 am on November 26 (Vietnam time).
