It’s been a week full of goals in the UEFA Champions League, with 71 flying in across the last 48 hours.
We saw three at St James’ Park in our 3-0 win over Benfica on Tuesday night, while PSG hit seven at Bayer Leverkusen and PSV smashed six past Napoli, meaning big victories for our final two opponents in the league phase.
Liverpool scored five in Frankfurt last night, Bayern Munich beat Brugge 4-0, and there was a vital win for our next opponents in Europe, as a previously point-less Athletic Bilbao recovered from 1-0 down to beat Qarabag 3-1.
This gave Bilbao their first win (and points) of the competition, with the Spanish side currently 8th in La Liga losing their opening two games to Arsenal (2-0) and Borussia Dortmund (4-1).
But how does all of this leave Newcastle in a league where the top 8 qualify automatically for the knockout stages and clubs between 9th and 24th face play-off games?
As the updated table shows below, Newcastle sit 8th and above Barcelona, Liverpool and Chelsea on goal difference, with only PSG, Bayern, Arsenal, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, Dortmund and Man City having more points than our six so far.
Last season, 16 points was enough for Aston Villa to squeeze into the top 8 and qualify automatically, with 11 points the benchmark to secure a place in the top 24 and ensure a play-off decider to make the last 16.
Our next UCL match – a home game with Bilbao on 5th November – falls in between away trips to West Ham (2nd November) and Brentford (9th November), creating another big week for the team in league and Europe.
See our five remaining Champions League games below, with two home matches and three away trips still to come:
- 5th November – Athletic Bilbao (H)
- 25th November – Marseille (A)
- 10th December – Bayer Leverkusen (A)
- 21st January – PSV (H)
- 28th January – PSG (A)
