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 triumph over Qarabag on Tuesday.
Having led 6-1 from the first leg in Azerbaijan, Newcastle edged a five-goal thriller at St. James’ Park, with the Magpies coming out 3-2 winners to seal a 9-3 aggregate victory.
Sandro Tonali and Joelinton’s quickfire goals put Howe’s men two goals in front with six minutes gone, only for Camilo Duran to pull one back five minutes after the restart.
Newcastle quickly restored their two-goal cushion through Sven Botman’s 52nd-minute header before Elvin Cafarquliyev netted another for the visitors, moments after Marko Jankovic had seen his penalty saved by Aaron Ramsdale.
The result saw Newcastle become just the third English team to score 9+ goals in a Champions League knockout-stage tie, after Manchester City against Schalke in 2018-19 (10) and Arsenal against PSV last season (nine).
Indeed, the Magpies have now scored more goals than any other side in the UEFA’s flagship competition this season (26), while Qarabag’s 30 goals conceded is the most any side has ever shipped in a single campaign in the competition.
“This was our target at the start of the season,” Howe told Amazon Prime.
“We discussed various things and to get to the knockout stages was there for us, and we felt we could achieve it with the players we have.
“It’s been a really exciting phase of this competition. We’ve really enjoyed the different challenges.
“The knockout stage will be a different challenge for us at the sharp end against elite teams, so we’ve got everything to look forward to.
“But at the back of my mind, we have to get our Premier League form back to where we want it to be and that will give us the best chance to do well in this competition as well.”
UNITED pic.twitter.com/wQYiWR4m7g
— Newcastle United (@NUFC) February 24, 2026
Newcastle’s reward is a last-16 tie with LaLiga giants Barcelona or fellow Premier League side Chelsea, who both automatically qualified for the round of 16
Howe’s team have already played Barcelona in the Champions League this season, losing 2-1 at St. James’ Park in their first league phase clash in 2025-26, with Marcus Rashford’s sensational double sealing the win for the Blaugrana.
Newcastle then drew their top-flight meeting with Chelsea in December, with goals from Reece James and Joao Pedro seeing the Blues come from two goals down to draw 2-2.
“Genuinely, I haven’t given it a second thought. I know those teams have been there for us,” Howe said when asked whether he would prefer to face Barcelona or Chelsea.
“The main thing was to get through and be really pleased with the professional job we’d done.
“I think if you look at the score over the two legs, it’s been fantastic for the players even though today feels like a bit of a hollow win for us.
“We really enjoyed the game against Barcelona. We had a good game against Chelsea here as well. 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 could beat either side in the next round.
“Anyone,” Murphy, who celebrated his 31st birthday by being handed the captain’s armband against Qarabag, said.
“Honestly, with this group of players, we’ll take anyone on, especially with knockout football, we back ourselves. Bring on whoever’s to come.”
