Newcastle could be four points away from Europe today

European football on the menu at St James' Park?
Newcastle can take a giant leap towards European football for next season today, without even kicking a ball!

Liverpool take on Everton this afternoon in an FA Cup semi-final which could have a huge bearing on whether or not we end up in Europe next season.

Of course we’re in the box seat the qualify for the Europa League anyway, and still, rather surprisingly, have a chance of making the Champions League. However the right result today will give us a form of safety net and will ensure that we need only four points from the remaining Premier League games to secure at least Europa League football for next season.

The right result would be a Liverpool win of course, as it would mean that 6th place in the Premier League would guarantee a Europa League spot while an Everton win would mean that 5th place would be needed for European qualification as Everton would get the spot instead.

The permutations

If Liverpool win…

This is the ideal result for Newcastle. As the other semi-final (Tottenham v Chelsea) is being contested between two sides likely to qualify for Europe, and because Liverpool have already qualified via their League Cup win, it would mean that the European spot drops to the next available league position, which is 6th.

If Everton win…

This is not good for Newcastle as Everton are likely to finish below us in the league but would qualify by virtue of taking the European place as losing finalists.

There are more permutations so it’s not quite as black and white as it seems at the moment, but right now those are the ones that matter. The message is simple, come on Liverpool! Alan Pardew agrees:

“It would suit our European hopes if Liverpool won,” Pardew told The Journal. “Everton could get through to the final and I think the rule needs to be looked at because if we finish higher than them in the Premier League, that has to be better than the runners-up in the FA Cup qualifying for the Europa League.”

“If Everton win the FA Cup, I’d say, ‘Fair enough’. There would be one side of me quite pleased if we don’t qualify for Europe, because it will mean we can attack next season without having the extra pressure of the Europa League.”

“Having said that though, the other side of me would welcome it because it would take the club forward, bond some of the players to the club, and it would be an achievement of sorts. We could also perhaps add to the squad with the extra finance we’d get.”

I never thought I’d say this, and I probably never will again but, come on Liverpool!

About toonsy

A lifelong Newcastle fan and current webmaster of this very 'blog who has the sole aim of creating a place by Newcastle United fans, for Newcastle United fans.

181 thoughts on “Newcastle could be four points away from Europe today

  1. Ahh the fickleness of fans

    Mina on Twitter: “That one goal alone is worth the £35m.”

    Eoin O’Mara on Twitter: “Get in Andy! Suarez and Carroll come up big when it counts.”

    Funny, in the last few months I could have sworn I’ve heard screams for his death….ah well 🙄

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  2. not putting downer like “but there is 15 points to play for, everton are 12 behind us,so the way i look at it is we need 1 win or everton only have to lose 1 to be 100% sure and they have to play m/u 😉

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  3. So now the worst thing is for Newcastle to come 4th and for Chelsea to win the Champions League. That’d be a bummer.

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  4. Richie-119

    Nah they’ll deserve a losers medal, it will ease them in to us supplanting them as a Champions league side :mrgreen:

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  5. Bris…it would be worse if we finished 5th and that happened as we wouldn’t even be in the Europa 🙁

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  6. Newkie that’s what I meant, us 5th spuds 4th and Chelski winning CL in 6th, thought it was obvious as Chelski won’t finish above us 😉 😆

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  7. newkie…I know no chance, but Bris had said “if” they did, so the only way that would affect us in 5th place is if they finished below us, therefore spuds would have to be in 4th….ow me heed…..anway all irrelevant, Chelski won’t win it, we’ll finish 4th…. 5th at worst :mrgreen:

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  8. Chelsea to final,can’t stand barcelona. 👿

    Then either bayern or RM win the UCL. Would be great if is RM the other club i supported since young. 😉

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  9. Richie-If that happened that would be heartbreaking 😕 cant happen tho, like you say 😛

    Well, purely from Newcastle’s point of view I want Chelsea out obviously, plus if they miss out on CL qualification maybe just maybe that ******* abramovich will clear off, unlikely but it would be very handy.

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  10. I’ve been to Europe a few times.. its not that big of a deal… just hop on a plane &……….

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  11. AoD….plus them getting to the final would keep their minds off the PL if they got to the final…..can’t see them beating Barca though 😯

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  12. alot of sunday games coming up next season boys 😕
    just need chelsea out of CL asap!!!

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  13. I was as angry as anyone else when Carroll left us for more money fc oh er I mean Liverpool but i was delighted he got the winner against Blackburn and again today. Fair play to him.
    But he won’t be the reason we are in Europe. We will be there on our own merits. Lets get 4th

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  14. Andy Carroll scored a more important goal for us today than he ever could have if he’d stayed here. After all he really would look like a donkey in the fluid, incisive attacking lineup we have today.

    So yes, that 35million really was well spent, cheers Liverpool!
    😆 😆

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  15. Rooting for Liverpool today 👿 👿 😥 😥

    Liverpool winning today 🙂 🙂 🙂 🙂

    Strange day

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  16. now then…. Chelsea’s exploits in the CL will only effect us in the following scenario –
    we finish 4th and they win the CL. In this situation they’ll take the 4th CL berth and we’ll compete in the Europa

    thats it, they can’t prevent us from playing Europa footy. Regardless of what they do in the CL.

    The current top6 (+ Liverpool) will almost certainly represent Eng. in Europe next season. 4 teams in the CL and 3 in the EL

    The only team that can muscle in is Everton and they’d need to pretty much win every game to finish above NUFC, Chelsea or Spurs

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  17. Errr what the fck, Colin ‏ @cwarr07 Close
    No doubt there’ll be a backlash but id rather see #nufc in the Europa League than the Champions League. Allows the club to budget & progress
    2:59 PM – 14 Apr 12 via Twitter for iPhone · Details

    Worse is people agreeing with him?!

    Understand where they are coming from in the sense that if we got knocked out of the qualifiers it might hit us hard, but that’s like the smoggies not trying to get playoffs in case they lose and it affects them next season. Utter bollox.
    Also understand people’s concern about the extra games, but for people to want europa more than champions league is just daft.

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  18. M aye also if we win 1 game more everton cannot do nowt even if they win every game which i doubt imo.
    RICHIE not often yer wrong,well so your mrs says 😀

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  19. Afternoon everyone, gutted that Liverpool won today like coz I HATE them and felt the same as Dave. We don’t need favours from the bin dippers.
    I do agree with Pardew though, in that if there is qualification through the back door it should be PL position rather than finalist losers and I know we aren’t mathematically guaranteed 6th yet but I really don’t see us not picking up the 4 points needed.
    Bitter sweet today but a win on the national should make me smile wider 😀

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  20. 👿 Stupid Seabass 👿 Stupid according to Pete and 👿 Stupid Shakalakaboom

    I hate Liverpool and hate weekends without Toon games 👿 👿 👿

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  21. Sharpy @ 177 Neptune Collonges was my lads horse today 😀 Mine was Shakalakaboomboom and my girls was midnight Haze cause her name is Hazel .

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  22. Sharpy, try betting on horses that don’t have “stupid” in their name then you might get somewhere 😉 😆

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