UEFA make official Newcastle United Champions League announcement ahead of group stage draw

The Champions League group stage draw will take place from 5pm BST in Monaco this Thursday evening with Newcastle preparing to play in the competition for the first time in over 20 years.

The Magpies will be in pot four of the draw, the lowest possible, meaning a difficult group could be on the cards.

And UEFA’s official Champions League Twitter account has teased the draw with a picture of Newcastle United’s name ready to be entered into the ball for the draw.

The image was accompanied by a fitting caption which read: “Howay the lads.”

Newcastle have played in the Champions League twice before. They were knocked out in the group stage during the 1997-98 season but managed to beat Barcelona 3-2 but finished third in their group.

In 2002-03, Newcastle progressed to the second group stage and the last-16 of the competition but were knocked out after finishing third behind Barcelona and Inter Milan.

During the 2002-03 Champions League campaign, Newcastle became the first team to qualify out of a Champions League group after losing their first three matches. The Magpies lost to Juventus, Dynamo Kyiv and Feyenoord in their opening three matches before winning all of the reverse fixtures to finish second in their group.

Their record as the only side to do so stood until the 2019-20 season when Serie A side Atalanta progressed despite losing 4-0 to Dinamo Zagreb, 2-1 to Shakhtar Donetsk and 5-1 against Manchester City in their opening three group stage matches.