The team sheets have been released ahead of today’s final pre-season friendly of the summer, which sees us take on Athletic Bilbao at a packed out St James’ Park.
As expected, Eddie Howe has made 11 changes from the side that beat Atalanta 1-0 last night, seeing the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Sven Botman and Allan Saint-Maximin all return to the starting line up for the 3pm kick off.
Here’s the side we’ve gone with against the La Liga side:
STARTING XI: Dubravka – Krafth, Lascelles, Botman, Dummett – Willock, Guimaraes, Joelinton – Ritchie, Wilson, Saint-Maximin.
SUBS: Gillespie, M.Longstaff, De Bolle, Munoz, Bondswell, Stephenson, Turner-Cooke, A.Murphy, L.Miley.
A strong side selected by Howe, seeing Callum Wilson lead the line, Allan Saint-Maximin start out wide and Joe Willock join Joelinton – who is back from a ban – and Bruno Guimaraes in a midfield three.
Sven Botman comes in for his first appearance at SJP alongside Jamaal Lascelles, with Paul Dummett at left-back and Emil Krafth filling in for Trippier – who played the full 90 last night.
Martin Dubravka also gets the nod in goal after recovering from a wrist injury, seeing Karl Darlow return to the bench.
Jonjo Shelvey (hamstring) is missing alongside Jamal Lewis, Federico Fernandez and Javier Manquillo.
Here’s how our pre-season has panned out so far this summer, with today’s game set to be our SEVENTH friendly over the past month as we build up to next weekend’s big kick off at home to Nottingham Forest.
- 1st July (Friday) – Players returned for pre-season training
- 9th July (Saturday) – Newcastle 5-1 Gateshead (behind-closed-doors)
- – Austria training camp
- 15th July (Friday) – Newcastle 3-0 1860 Munich (SaalfeldenArena Bürgerau)
- 18th July (Monday) – Newcastle 0-1 Mainz 05 (Kufstein Arena)
- – Portugal training camp
- 23rd July (Saturday) – Newcastle beat Burnley (behind closed doors)
- 26th July (Tuesday) – Benfica 3-2 Newcastle (Estádio da Luz)
- 29th July (Friday) – Newcastle 1-0 Atalanta (St James’ Park)
- 30th July (Saturday) – Athletic Bilbao (3pm BST) at St James’ Park
- 6th August (Saturday) – Newcastle vs Nottingham Forest (3pm – Premier League)
