I qualified for the Champions League with Newcastle United - now we can do it again after UEFA rule change

Jhon Duran was sent off for Villa as Anthony Gordon, Alexander Isak and Joelinton scored on a comfortable afternoon for Eddie Howe’s side. Newcastle have reached the Carabao Cup semi-final and moved up to fifth in the Premier League table following the recent run of wins.

Just one point separates Newcastle in fifth and Villa in ninth in what is a very tight Premier League table heading into 2025. But as things stand, The Magpies are technically occupying a Champions League qualification place.

Due to a rule change and reformatting of the Champions League, the two nations with the highest coefficients from the current season are given an extra qualification place for the next Champions League campaign. Last season, Italy and Germany were awarded an additional spot though this season England are leading the way to take an extra spot that would see fifth place qualify.

In 2022-23, Newcastle finished fourth in the Premier League and qualified for the Champions League in the final season under the previous format. The Magpies then narrowly missed out on Europe last season, becoming only the second side in the past 10 years to finish seventh and not qualify for European football.

When asked about the prospect of qualifying for the Champions League again, Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said: “We're shooting whatever we can shoot for.

“We will take it game by game. I'm very heartened by how the team is playing, we're winning strongly at the moment, we're not winning by luck. I think there is a definite upturn in our general performance, we're good defensively and good in attack but of course we need to keep our standards very high.”

Newcastle have more than doubled their goal tally for the season in the last six games, scoring 19 goals. They end 2024 at Manchester United on Monday (8pm kick-off).

“It is a great thing for us to try and end the year on a high,” Howe added. “This game is all about momentum and confidence and the players believing how good they can be.

“Hopefully we go into the new year in a better place. Touch wood, it looks like we're building some kind of stability within it, we're not losing players as we were last season due to injury and we've got a couple of players back on the horizon as well so signs are good.”