Newcastle to face Barcelona or Chelsea after cruising into Champions League last-16

Good evening and welcome to our coverage of the second leg of Newcastle’s knockout play-off vs Qarabag. Eddie Howe’s men coasted to a 6-1 victory in the first leg in Baku, so there is a sense tonight will be a procession.

Unsurprisingly, no team has ever surrendered a five goal lead aggregate lead in major European competitions.

It therefore could be a good chance for Howe to continue boosting confidence into players who have been struggling in the league as of late. Anthony Gordon scored four first half goals from centre forward last Wednesday, but struggled to get himself into the game in a 2-1 defeat to Manchester City on the weekend. Newcastle were able to get their speedster in behind against City’s high line – Qarabag will surely have to play with one tonight – but he lacked players to link up with. Howe seems to be backing the Gordon up top, Nick Woltemade in the midfield selection for the remainder of the season so any chance to gel that combination, with next year’s European hopes hanging by a thread, should be taken.

Conversely, it could be a chance for Howe to get minutes into some young legs and keep his bench fresh. Malik Thiaw, who scored in the first leg, is suspended and Fabian Schar and Emil Krafth are still injured, so there’s a perfect opportunity to re-introduce Sven Botman who returned to training this week and is awaiting the results of a late fitness test.

Yoane Wissa was also back in training, so could come into start – it would do some of Newcastle’s front line players no harm to have a rest with the result all but secure having travelled from Birmingham to Baku to Manchester to home all within the last 10 days. William Osula is another player who could do with some minutes up front – he has struggled for goals this season.

Plenty of chance to experiment or really turn the screw for Newcastle, hopefully Gurban Gurbanov has told his players to chase the impossible so we can enjoy an open game. This is their first ever knockout match in the Champions League, nothing to lose!

Stay tuned for team news, build up and live coverage here on Telegraph Sport!