Eddie Howe reacts to Champions League rule change set to impact Newcastle United
Newcastle United head coach Eddie Howe is hoping Newcastle United will benefit from a new Champions League format this season.
Newcastle United will be taking part in the Champions League for the fourth time this season as they prepare to host Barcelona at St James’ Park.
While the previous three Champions League campaigns have seen The Magpies take part in four-team groups, this season will be the club’s first in the new 36-team group phase format.
Barcelona will be the first of eight teams Newcastle face in the group phase format as they look to advance to the Champions League knockout stage for the first time.
Newcastle will also play Union Saint-Gilloise, Benfica, Athletic Club, Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen, PSV Eindhoven and Paris Saint-Germain.
All 36 teams are ranked in order of performance with the top eight clubs advancing straight to the last-16 while teams ranked ninth to 24th enter a seeded knockout round play-off tie. Clubs ranked 25th to 36th are knockout out of Europe entirely.
Last time out in the Champions League, Newcastle were drawn into a difficult group alongside PSG, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan. Despite getting off to a positive start with a 0-0 draw in Milan before a 4-1 win over PSG, Newcastle finished bottom of the group after taking only two points from their remaining four games.
It is hoped the expanded format, range of opposition and more fixtures will benefit Newcastle this coming season.
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Eddie Howe discusses Champions League format change
On the format change, Howe said: “I like the format. More games is good for us. It helps us learn and adapt.
“Whether it’s easier to qualify, we’ll see. There are benefits: Financial, competitive, and proving the squad’s quality. But ultimately, the players have to excel at this level.
“There are benefits across the board in terms of qualifying [for the knockout stages], which is our first target. Financial, of course, but also showing the squad that we’re strong enough.
“I always say in response to these questions, the players have to show that they’re good enough to play at this level and that they’re excelling at this level - playing [alone] isn’t good enough. We need our players to excel.”
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Lessons learned from previous Champions League season?
Newcastle learned lessons from their previous campaigns in the Carabao Cup to achieve success in the competition last season. But the Champions League is a different beast entirely.
“I think that experience [during the 2023/24 Champions League] in part, just the size and the magnitude of those games, and everything that goes into a Champions League is different,” Howe said. “It is different to the Premier League, it feels different, so I think having done that before can certainly help us again, because I think the squad is arguably stronger.
“You can always debate either way. Of course, the squad has changed, it's a different squad, and I think I back the quality that we have.