Eddie Howe revealed Newcastle United had achieved their pre-season target of qualifying for the last 16 of the Champions League following their play-off victory over Qarabag on Tuesday.
After leading 6–1 in the first leg in Azerbaijan, Newcastle won a five-goal thriller at St. James’ Park, with the Magpies running out 3–2 winners to seal a 9–3 aggregate victory.
Quick goals from Sandro Tonali and Joelinton put Howe’s men two goals ahead in the space of six minutes, but Camilo Duran pulled one back five minutes after the restart.
Newcastle quickly restored their two-goal cushion through a Sven Botman header in the 52nd minute before Elvin Cafarquliyev scored another for the visitors, moments after Marko Jankovic had his penalty saved by Aaron Ramsdale.
The result made Newcastle only the third English team to score more than nine goals in the Champions League knockout stages, following Manchester City against Schalke in 2018/19 (10) and Arsenal against PSV last season (nine).
The Magpies have now scored more goals than any other side in UEFA’s flagship competition this season (26), while Qarabag’s 30 goals are the most any side has ever conceded in a single season in the competition.
“This was our goal at the beginning of the season,” Howe told Amazon Prime.
“We discussed several things and reaching the knockout stages was ready for us, and we felt we could achieve this with the players we have.
“It was a very exciting phase of this competition. We really enjoyed the different challenges.
“The knockout stages will be another challenge for us as we compete against elite teams, so we have everything to look forward to.
But in the back of my mind we need to get our Premier League form back to where we want it to be and that will give us the best chance of doing well in this competition as well.”
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— Newcastle United (@NUFC) February 24, 2026
Newcastle’s reward is a last-16 draw with LaLiga giants Barcelona or fellow Premier League club Chelsea, both of whom automatically qualified for the round of 16
Howe’s side have already played Barcelona in the Champions League this season and lost 2-1 at St. James’ Park in their first league match of 2025/26, with Marcus Rashford’s sensational double sealing victory for the Blaugrana.
Newcastle then played their summit meeting with Chelsea in December, with goals from Reece James and Joao Pedro seeing the Blues come from two goals behind to draw 2–2.
“To be honest, I haven’t thought about it for a second. I know those teams have been there for us,” Howe said when asked whether he would rather play against Barcelona or Chelsea.
“The most important thing was to get through it and be really satisfied with the professional work we had done.
“If you look at the score over the two legs, I think it was fantastic for the players, even if today feels like a hollow victory for us.
“We really enjoyed the game against Barcelona. We also played a good game against Chelsea here. We didn’t win either, so I hope that’s a good omen for us.”
Howe’s reluctance to pick a team was shared by Jacob Murphy, who believes Newcastle can beat either side in the next round.
“Everyone,” said Murphy, who celebrated his 31st birthday when he was given the captain’s armband against Qarabag.
“Honestly, with this group of players we compete against everyone, especially in knockout football we back ourselves. Bring it on whoever comes.”
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