Newcastle United complete cruise into Champions League last 16 despite ‘hollow’ victory

LONDON – Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe wants improvement from his side following a “hollow” win, as they advanced to the Champions League last 16 with a 3-2 victory over Qarabag on Feb 24 to progress 9-3 on aggregate over the Azeri champions.

The Magpies will make up a six-strong contingent of English sides in the next round, alongside Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur.

A tie that involved an over 8,000km round trip for both sides was killed off inside 45 minutes last week as Newcastle led 5-0 at half-time on their way to a 6-1 rout.

That allowed Howe to heavily rotate his side, with four-goal hero from the first leg Anthony Gordon among those left on the bench.

But he was still disappointed with how Newcastle handled the second half after another fast start, as they added to their lead twice inside the opening six minutes of the match via Sandro Tonali and Joelinton.

“I think if you look at the score over the two legs, it’s been fantastic from the players, even though today feels like a bit of a hollow win for us,” said Howe.

“I thought at 2-0 we probably came off the pedal. We didn’t intend to do that but it was sort of the natural reaction. In the second half, the game became end-to-end which, for us, was a real shame. For one, we expended too much energy, and it meant we didn’t put pressure on their goal.”

Qarabag had taken the scalps of Benfica and Eintracht Frankfurt in the league phase to make the play-off round and at least salvaged some pride with two goals in the second period.

Camilo Duran outpaced Dan Burn to pull a goal back before the Newcastle defender was penalised for handball inside the box. Aaron Ramsdale saved Marko Jankovic’s penalty but Elvin Jafarguliyev netted the rebound.

In between the visitors’ two goals, Sven Botman powered in a header from a corner.

Howe was unhappy about his team’s second-half performance and a much tougher test lies ahead for Newcastle in March, when they will take on either Barcelona or Chelsea in the last 16.

Elsewhere, Atletico Madrid had been held to a 3-3 draw by Club Brugge in Belgium last week but they ran out 4-1 winners in the Feb 24 return leg in the Spanish capital to advance 7-4 on aggregate.

Norwegian striker Alexander Sorloth was the star of the show with a hat-trick, including the opener midway through the first half, which came from a long kick downfield by goalkeeper Jan Oblak.

Joel Ordonez headed the away side level before the break, but US international Johnny Cardoso restored Atletico’s lead just after the interval.

Sorloth scored his second and Atletico’s third on the night on 76 minutes, and then completed his hat-trick to round out the scoring with his 15th goal of the season in all competitions.

Diego Simeone’s team will play either Tottenham or Liverpool in the next round.

“I’m not thinking about Liverpool or Tottenham, I’m enjoying today’s game and being in the last 16 for another season is very important,” Simeone told broadcaster Movistar.

Meanwhile, Bayer Leverkusen followed a 2-0 win away to Olympiakos in Greece last week with a 0-0 home draw on Feb 24.

The 2024 German champions now face a huge test next against either Arsenal or Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich. AFP, REUTERS