That’s right, Newcastle United could win the Champions League.
Hilarious isn’t it?
The idea that Eddie Howe and his players could win the Champions League?
The thing is, it isn’t just our enemies, I don’t think I have really seen any Newcastle United fans talking about the possibility. It feels like very much a case of NUFC supporters still seeing this as simply an adventure, rather than a competition our club is taking part in to try and win the whole thing.
Maybe not such a bad thing of course, not to get our hopes up too much. We have always had never ending enthusiasm and hope of one day Newcastle United winning trophies, any silverware in our lifetime. Though our enemies have always wanted to misrepresent that as supposed expectations. ‘Look at the daft Geordies, they think they are going to win the FA Cup, Carabao Cup, Premier League….Champions League!’
I don’t think, before it actually happened, I knew any Newcastle United fans who would insist they thought we would definitely win whatever. It was simply a case of that we always wanted to dream, which our enemies didn’t like, or at best didn’t understand. That even under the long long years of Mike Ashley, we still kept that flame burning, that flame of hope that one day we would see it happen.
When it did happen on 16 March 2025 it was bloody brilliant. Having been told by everyone that Newcastle United would never win anything, when NUFC did win the Carabao Cup…we were now told it was a worthless trophy. I didn’t care. Like the rest of you I had an absolute blast and having been lucky enough to be inside Wembley to see it, well, it was just the best.
Until now that is.
Yes, Newcastle United could win the Champions League.
Getting down to basics, Eddie Howe and his NUFC team are one of only 16 clubs that can now lift the trophy – Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Spurs, Barcelona, Chelsea, Sporting Lisbon, Manchester City, Real Madrid, PSG, Newcastle United, Atletico Madrid, Atalanta, Bayer Leverkusen, Galatasaray, Bodo/Glimt
History repeating itself?
When Newcastle United finally won a trophy, they of course did it in the toughest way possible.
They won all four matches in the Carabao Cup against the three clubs that would end up first, second and fourth in the 2024/25 Premier League table. Eddie Howe and his team also defeated seventh (Forest) and tenth (Brentford), as well as AFC Wimbledon.
The four wins in the Carabao Cup last season over the teams that would finish top four in the league, saw United score eight goals and concede only one – Newcastle 2 Chelsea 0, Arsenal 0 Newcastle 2, Newcastle 2 Arsenal 0, Liverpool 1 Newcastle 2.
At 11am (or not long after…) this morning, the Champions League route to the final will be known.
To get to Budapest (that rings a bell…), Newcastle United might need to beat Chelsea, then Liverpool (or potentially Spurs) and then Arsenal potentially Arsenal in the semis.
If that was to be the route, is it impossible? Well, it wasn’t last year on the way to glory.
This isn’t to say that Newcastle United WILL win the Champions League, it is simply a case of Newcastle United COULD win the Champions League.
The unbeatables?
Yes, but what about all those great European sides that don’t play in the Premier League?
There aren’t any.
There are a lot of good teams but not any outstanding ones.
In the past we have seen the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid with outstanding teams, where you just thought WOW!
No current team in European football has the WOW factor.
Arsenal are favourites to win the Champions League, Newcastle United are joint eighth favourites, ranked alongside Atletico Madrid and Tottenham.
Under Eddie Howe, Newcastle have won three of their last five matches against Arsenal, winning four of the last seven. It could actually have been the case of NUFC winning all of their last five against Arsenal, as at SJP this season Newcastle were leading late in the game, whilst at the end of last season United had numerous first half chances at the Emirates but didn’t take them and lost 1-0.
It’s a knockout
A lot of people forget that the Champions League is a knockout competition.
Yes, there was a group stage that is now a Swiss League stage, but in both cases you then see pretty much the same ten clubs in the last 16 each season, plus a handful of Champions League irregulars.
Last season, PSG won the Champions League and everybody said how great they were. They defeated Liverpool in the last 16, knocked out Aston Villa in the last eight and then Arsenal in the semis. In all three rounds, PSG could have got knocked out if fine margins and luck had gone the other way.
Newcastle United have never lost to PSG. Eddie Howe’s side hammered them 4-1 two seasons ago at SJP in the Champions League were cheated out of a win in Paris by an outrageous decision from the match officials in the reverse game, then only last month, Newcastle could and should have won late on in Paris with some great chances to do so.
Look at Bodo-Glimt
When you talk of Champions League and the reality, the luck and fine margins. Look at Bodo/Glimt.
They won none of their first six of the eight Swiss League matches and yet still ended up making it to the last 16.
That is how random this competition can be.
Look how shocking Tottenham have been these last two seasons, fourth bottom of the Premier League last season and having a good go at going one better this season. Yet they won the Europa League last season AND are one of the seeded teams in the Champions League last 16!
A number of years ago, Manchester City under Pep Guardiola looked at times like they would never lose a match. Yet they did do. Even when winning the Premier League year after year they couldn’t win the Champions League, until eventually doing so when they were very lucky to win 1-0 in the final against Inter Milan in 2023. Last year PSG hammered Inter Milan 5-0 in the final. Inter Milan were very average and this season have just now lost home and away to Bodo/Glimt to exit the Champions League.
If this was a European Super League where Newcastle United had to play all of the last 16 teams home and away, then I think chances of winning that would be all but impossible.
This though is a cup knockout competition now and is it impossible to get through these next three ties and make it to the final? NO!!!
Newcastle United could win the Champions League.