"Newcastle make the 2,529-mile trip to Azerbaijan on Wednesday, for the first leg of their knockout-round play-off tie against Qarabag. It is the longest distance ever travelled by an English team for a Champions League match, but despite those exertions, the Magpies are still overwhelming favourites. The Opta supercomputer assigns them a 64.3% chance of winning the away leg, with Qarabag's chances of victory rated at a mere 15.7%."
""You look at the history of the club - this is a slightly new opportunity for us to get to the last 16. "We want to turn these moments into history and into moments people talk about for a long time. "It would be an incredible achievement, and we're trying to embrace it in that way and look at the excitement and the possibility, rather than feel too much of the burden and the pressure of the occasion.""
Newcastle travel 2,529 miles to Azerbaijan to face Qarabag in the first leg of a Champions League knockout-round play-off tie. That distance is the longest ever travelled by an English team for a Champions League match. Opta gives Newcastle a 64.3% chance of winning the away leg and a 90% probability of reaching the round of 16. Newcastle have never previously won a Champions League knockout tie or reached the last 16; their best run was third in a 2002-03 second group stage. Eddie Howe described reaching the last 16 as an opportunity to make history and said the team will embrace the excitement. Newcastle face a congested schedule with a Premier League trip to Manchester City between the two legs, and Howe intends to play his strongest team to try to win.
Read at Soccer News
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