As the new season gets into full swing, the buzz around Champions League football has spread through fans and the club.
Views from outside the Geordie fanbase are more doubtful, some suggesting it might be too much too soon. Punters in UK poker rooms available online would have Newcastle struggling to progress through most of the possible groups.
As sobering of a thought that can be, historically, Newcastle have managed to juggle European football and The Premier League well enough, having managed to remain in European competition every season they’ve qualified for the Champions League.
With every fan antsy to jump straight to the day of the first group stage game, here’s a recollection of Newcastle’s previous 3 forays into Europe’s most prestigious competition.
1997/98
Newcastle’s first foray into European competition came in 1997. Off the back of a 2nd placed finish the season before, in which Manchester United pipped Newcastle to first place by 7 points, The Magpies found themselves directly qualifying for the Champions League Group Stage.
The likes of Les Ferdinand, David Ginola, Alan Shearer helped them achieve second place. Despite a finish I’m sure most fans would be thrilled with now, the campaign was marred by another failed title challenge, as Manchester United won the league again.
In the 95/96 season before, The FA Premier League runner up only qualified for the UEFA Cup, hence Newcastle’s first Champions League appearance coming in the 97/98 season.
The UEFA Cup qualification had only compounded Newcastle’s disappointment further. Desperate to win to the point that Kevin Keegan would deliver that infamous speech as he snapped back at Alex Ferguson’s suggestions that certain teams had given Newcastle an easier time. “I would love it if we beat them” is still quoted by many today.
But enough about what Newcastle failed to achieve, because the season of 96/97 brought with it Champions League football, The Premier League having increased its European Coefficient to the point where second now granted a chance at club football’s biggest prize.
Carried by a prime Alan Shearer’s 25 strikes, Newcastle qualified in second place, 7 points behind Man United. But, the next season they would almost falter at the first hurdle. Two gruelling legs against a Dinamo Zagreb side that featured future Magpie, Mark Viduka.
It would take 29 minutes of extra time before Newcastle finally bested Zagreb, a shoddy defensive clearance falling to Batty in the midfield, who quickly found Asprilla.
When Temuri Ketsbaia was fed, 10 yards out, there was only one outcome. There was only one way the Georgian Geordie could pull off a more memorable moment than when he destroyed an advertising hoarding by kicking it.
When Newcastle’s Champions league group was drawn, many would have been content, it could have been worse. Dynamo Kyiv, PSV Eindhoven and Barcelona, who were no doubt the favourites.
Newcastle put on some decent displays, but in the end fell short, qualification past the group stage was only awarded to the groups winner, which in this case was Dynamo Kyiv of all sides.
They had a young Andriy Shevchenko at the helm, but the real shock was Barcelona coming dead last, Newcastle 2 points above them. The highlight of their group stage was undoubtedly a famous 3-2 win over Barcelona in which Asprilla scored a perfect hat-trick.
2002/03
By 2001/02 English football had done enough to earn four Champions League spots, meaning 4th place was good enough for another flirt with elite football.
Alan Shearer unsurprisingly Newcastle’s top scorer with 23 for the season. In the Champions League of 02/03, their qualifying round would prove far less stressful then their debut season in the competition. A 5-0 victory over Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Željezničar.
In the Group Stage, Newcastle would face their previous adversaries in Dynamo Kyiv, and a formidable Juventus side with Pavel Nedved, Edgar Davids, Gianluigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Del Piero and even Antonio Conte.
Newcastle started the group stage dreadfully. After three games they had conceded five, scored zero and lost every game. To qualify they had to win their last remaining 3 matches, with Feyenoord the final decisive game that their progression depended on.
After squeezing past that legendary Juventus team, 1-0, and coming from behind in the 2nd half to beat Dynamo Kyiv 2-1, Newcastle still needed a win to progress over Feyenoord. A cagey, nervy first half came and went, with Bellamy snatching a goal, latching on to a through ball and slotting home in trademark fashion on the stroke of half-time.
Bellamy had run rampant all game, having been put through multiple times in the first half; Feyenoord struggling to cope with his electric pace.
A goal in the 49th minute, settled the away crowd.
Viana’s sumptuous half volley, sucker-punched the Dutch side, the midfielder with aeons of time to chest the ball down and rifle a shot into the corner.
But just as quick as Newcastle had put themselves in dreamland, Feyenoord dragged them back down to reality, as Feyenoord scored 2 in 6 minutes. The first was scrambled in by Mariano Bombarda. After conceding, Newcastle started to lose composure, and after a shaky 5 minutes were punished by an equaliser, Anthony Lurling smashing the ball home.
Newcastle always leave things late, and just like in Zagreb they would strike at the death. Dyer taking the ball in his stride from a Shearer knockdown, beating his man and placing the ball to the keeper’s right. The Feyenoord keeper got a strong arm to it, but could only push it out to Craig Bellamy, squeezing the ball in at the near post on the rebound.
It was the goal they needed, and with Kyiv losing 2-1 to Juventus, Newcastle had just done enough, turning around a horrific start and becoming one of the only teams in Champions league history to progress after losing their first 3 games.
In this edition of the Champions League, the round of 16 was… another group stage. Four groups of four, with the top two going through.
This format undoubtedly made things harder for the smaller teams who might have gotten through. Rather than being able to play for draws, or have one really good match and cause an upset, teams had to slog through 6 more games, this time against even higher quality teams.
Sadly, they’d suffer one of the hardest groups. A trio of Bayern Leverkusen, Inter Milan and Barcelona no doubt left many fearful. Two 3-1 wins vs Bayern Leverkusen and a 2-2 draw with Inter weren’t enough to displace the big boys. Newcastle bowed out in 3rd, having once again given their all.
2003/04
The final and most recent Champions League appearance came in 03/04. Building upon the previous year and securing 3rd, Newcastle were still reliant on a now 33 Alan Shearer up top, the iconic forward bagging 17 this time.
With another season in Europe Newcastle would take a look at their squad and decide it was good enough. The only summer signing was Lee Bowyer from West Ham on a free.
With the squad they had, I think many had fears over whether they could compete like they had before. There was some talent in the squad, Kieron Dyer, Craig Bellamy, Gary Speed and Laurent Robert but it was hardly a team capable of being seriously competitive in Europe.
Sure enough, such sentiments would prove true, but unlike before, they wouldn’t even make it past the qualifiers. After 2 cagey, physical games against Partizan Belgrade, the Serbians condemned Newcastle to elimination on penalties, Aaron Hughes missing Newcastle’s final spot kick in sudden death.
It was elimination in the qualifying rounds for the Magpies.
In the Premier League that season, Newcastle finished 5th, which, all things considered, was a very respectable finish, as the side battled through to UEFA Cup qualification, refusing to let an early Champions League exit make their heads drop.