Overview
Newcastle United will welcome Barcelona to St James' Park in the challenging opening match of the Champions League.
Eddie Howe's side are facing the toughest schedule of any Premier League side in the League Phase.
After the match against Barcelona, the "Magpies" will continue their Champions League journey by visiting the reigning champions Paris Saint-Germain and Bayer Leverkusen.
Benfica, Union Saint-Gilloise, PSV, Marseille and Athletic Bilbao are also opponents that make Newcastle's schedule more difficult.
With this challenging opening series, Howe has reason to worry as Newcastle have only won one of their last 8 Champions League games (3 draws, 4 losses). However, that victory was a resounding 4-1 home win over PSG in the 2023-2024 group stage.
This season, Newcastle are without Alexander Isak, who has completed a record transfer deal in England to Liverpool. The departure of the Swedish striker left a significant gap in the "Magpies" attack.
New signings Nick Woltemade, Yoanne Wissa and Anthony Elanga are expected to fill the void. Currently, only 3 Newcastle players have scored in the European arena: Dan Burn, Fabian Schar and Joelinton.
Woltemade made his Premier League debut, scoring the only goal to help Newcastle beat Wolves 1-0. Meanwhile, Wissa missed this match due to returning from international duty with a knee injury.
Howe has reason to be jealous of Hansi Flick's attack, when Fermin Lopez, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski all scored twice in Barcelona's 6-0 win over Valencia in La Liga.
Raphinha was also directly involved in the most goals in UEFA's top club competitions last season, with 21 contributions (13 goals, 8 assists).
Marcus Rashford, a player on loan from Manchester United, has been directly involved in 8 goals in 11 appearances against Newcastle (5 goals, 3 assists). This impressive record includes two goals and two assists in six appearances at St James' Park.
Lamine Yamal was absent from the win over Valencia due to a groin injury, but if he recovers in time, he will make history. The next match will be his 24th appearance in the Champions League, helping Yamal beat PSG's Warren Zaire-Emery for the most appearances in the league under 18.
Despite Yamal's physical strength, Flick's potential attack is still completely consistent with his tactics. Flick has led two of the teams with the highest average scoring efficiency among coaches in at least 10 Champions League games. That is Bayern Munich, who have scored an average of 3.2 goals in 2019 to 2021, while Barcelona are currently averaging 3.1 goals per match.
However, Flick certainly wants to forget the painful memories in England, when Barcelona was beaten 4-0 by Liverpool in May 2019. That was the last time the Catalan team played in England in the Champions League. This is still considered one of the most famous comebacks in the tournament.
Of course, that spectacular comeback came before Flick's time, when Barcelona was then led by Ernesto Valverde. The La Liga champions last season have also lost just two consecutive games against English sides (Arsenal in 2011 and Chelsea in 2012).
Head-to-head record
Newcastle won 3-2 against Barcelona in September 1997. However, they have lost all 3 recent matches against their opponents.
The upcoming match will be the fifth meeting between the two sides, but the first since March 2003. At that time, Barcelona won 2-0 at St James' Park thanks to goals from Patrick Kluivert and Thiago Motta.
The Catalan team is also maintaining impressive form against English opponents in the Champions League, with 12 wins in the last 16 matches (2 draws, 2 losses), scoring an average of 2.1 goals per match.
Score prediction: Newcastle 2-3 Barcelona
The match between Newcastle and Barcelona takes place at 2:00 am on September 19 (Vietnam time).
