Newcastle United Champions League review 23-24

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00:00 Disappointing night in the Champions League for Newcastle United. Of course, I'm Liam

00:08 Kennedy, editor of Newcastle World, joined by Newcastle United writer Jordan Cronin.

00:14 We're going to do a little bit more of a deep dive, not just on the evening tonight,

00:18 as I'm pretty sure everyone out there will already know what has happened and how it happened.

00:23 Let's talk about the Champions League a little bit more in depth, because of course,

00:28 we've just seen there Newcastle United dumped out of not only the Champions League but Europe

00:32 due to that 2-1 home defeat to AC Milan. It's been six games, Jordan, it's been an interesting

00:41 adventure, I would say, with plenty of ups and downs. How would you describe Newcastle United's

00:46 first Champions League 4a in 20 years? Yeah, exactly that. It's felt so close yet so far.

00:54 I think in these situations, it is the hope that kills you, because after those two Dortmund

01:00 defeats that was all positive, after that Paris Saint-Germain defeat, it generally felt like

01:05 Newcastle could go through into the knockout stages. But then, the two defeats to Dortmund

01:11 back-to-back, at the time, it felt like a real kill and it felt like Newcastle's Champions

01:16 League hopes were hanging on the balance. But then they go to Paris and get an unbelievable result.

01:23 I mean, it didn't exactly cost them the night, but the penalty decision in Paris,

01:29 it's a real killer that one. It's still really hard to digest. Maybe it did impact them tonight,

01:36 because if Newcastle had the initiative and they had fate in their own hands,

01:40 they might not have been pushing it 1-1 for a winner. Yeah, they probably wouldn't have needed

01:46 to win. Which has helped me how AC Milan scored on the counter-attack and went from

01:53 being in the Europa League to having nothing. It was a really strange night in terms of that.

01:59 Emotions all over the place. In one night, Newcastle have gone from being in second,

02:04 qualifying for last 16 of the Champions League, to then dropping to third.

02:07 31 minutes, that was how close they were. With 31 minutes to go, they were second in the Group F

02:15 table. And with five minutes to go, all of a sudden, there were four minutes to go,

02:22 all of a sudden they were fourth in the table. It was quite a night. For me, rather than focusing

02:29 on the evening itself, let's talk more about the whole campaign in depth. For me, I think

02:34 it's been a real learning experience. I think on the balance of things, in my opinion, again,

02:42 this is only my opinion, on the balance of things, I'm not really sure Newcastle did deserve to go

02:46 through. I think in the key moments, in key games, the finest of margins, I think maybe quality at

02:54 times eluded them. Options at times eluded them. And maybe a little bit of experience at times

03:05 eluded them. I think that's where the learning experience will come from. The quality, I look

03:11 back to the home game against Borussia Dortmund, if Newcastle United could just take one of those

03:17 chances, if they get a result that day and the pressure comes off them going to Dortmund and if

03:23 Joe Linton scores at 1-0, to make it 1-0 each, Newcastle United don't go chasing goals and lose

03:30 two, like they did in that game. PSG was more probably a lack of options that killed them

03:36 because they didn't have the ability to go and change things and freshen things up. I think if

03:42 they have, they'll probably hang on to that lead, which they deserved to win that day. I think today

03:48 the odd option was there, which was good. I think a little bit of experience probably cost them

03:56 tonight. They were playing a team who got the semi-finals last year and I really do believe,

04:03 although they gave everything tonight, I think probably from about 50 odd minutes onwards,

04:09 10 minutes into the second half, I never really felt like Newcastle United were going to win this

04:13 game and that was before even it went to 1-0 each. I think for me it's a combination of all three of

04:20 those things. Quality in key moments, experience in key moments and just a lack of options probably

04:28 in that middle section of the Champions League campaign. What I would say about the campaign as

04:33 a whole, it started off with a very, very one-sided fixture against AC Milan, then the amazing highs

04:40 of Paris Saint-Germain, but opportunities were given away galore in those games and the first

04:45 half of that Dortmund game here at St James' Park back in October. I would say the second half of

04:53 the campaign had more to it in terms of looking more at home in this competition. I think they

05:02 should have won in Paris and really I think a more experienced, European-hardened team beats

05:09 AC Milan tonight, but I think they did enough in this game, both offensively and defensively,

05:15 despite the poor goals to concede, that they created enough chances to win this game

05:22 and didn't really allow the opposition too many chances. When you compare that to the first game

05:27 against AC Milan where they had about 140 shots on goal at the San Siro, compared to tonight where

05:34 Martin de Bravcast picked the ball up the net twice but hasn't had another save to make in the

05:39 game. It's one of those where you just feel a slight feeling of disappointment, I would say.

05:45 Look, I don't really blame them for doing what they did tonight and going for shooting for the

05:51 stars and they fell short at one each. Knowing the game elsewhere was finely balanced as well

05:58 and it was there for both teams to win. An incredible group where AC Milan were actually

06:04 only probably a goal off getting through to the last 16 themselves. The goal in that Dortmund game,

06:08 probably the best group of the tournament. The Castellonet have joined an unwelcome group,

06:15 which they hadn't been part of before, the finishing last in Champions League groups,

06:19 not many English teams have done that in the 30 years of group stages in a competition.

06:25 But I don't really feel any feeling of being ashamed of that. I think they've not looked

06:35 out of place in the Champions League, at times they've looked absolutely at home in it.

06:39 But probably on the balance of things over the six games, there's been more moments where they've

06:45 maybe looked out of practice in this competition, out of place in certain moments in certain games.

06:53 But like I say, it's probably the odd quality finish away or the odd decision that goes

06:59 away from qualifying, at least for the Europa League and probably through to the last 16.

07:06 They'll never ever, in all the times that they qualify, and I'm pretty sure they will qualify a

07:10 lot of times in the near future, they probably never will. Sorry, I'm going to pass it.

07:15 This is what happens when you're doing videos late at night,

07:21 they're recorded when they're trying to close the stadium down. What was I saying?

07:25 That's totally lost my track. Jordan, any thoughts?

07:30 So the only thing I would add, I think you've summed up the campaign really well and how it

07:35 played out. I would just say what Newcastle have faced in this group, they have faced three

07:40 Champions League giants with years and years of experience, whereas Newcastle have came in from

07:46 the cold 20 years or less in this competition. And in many ways, they've almost been taught a lesson.

07:52 And I think we'll be better for that. I think if you want to look positively,

07:57 next time they will be in the Champions League, which will happen, it will happen,

08:01 they will be stronger for it, they'll be more experienced and you'd expect them to,

08:06 they did put up a fight in this group, but you'd expect them to potentially qualify next time

08:12 because they've got that experience behind them. They couldn't have faced the hard-hitting

08:15 what they did. I think when the draw first happened, we probably all thought that Newcastle

08:21 would finish bottom. Which is part four. To be fair, the group has essentially played out

08:29 the way it was apart from Dortmund finished top and PSG finished second in terms of the seed,

08:35 Small Island third seed. So it played out how I was expecting, but Newcastle, they did put up a

08:41 fight and they showed glimpses of that offered hope to this ground that would, in this stadium

08:49 that Newcastle would qualify. But unfortunately, they've just fell short, but the positive I'd

08:56 take from tonight is they'll be back. They've obviously got a Premier League campaign now to

09:01 focus on. Still got a Carabao Cup quarter-final to look forward to and they've still got an FA Cup

09:07 game. So they're still in three competitions there and the second half of next season,

09:13 hopefully, as they did last season, they mount a top four push. I think they're seven points

09:19 behind at the moment. You look at it, I think it's probably difficult to catch that top four,

09:23 but there's lots of games to play and the exit, Newcastle, we've seen the tour, these European

09:31 games, the three games a week have taken on the squad. I think that extra respite between games

09:37 will have this squad prepared, extra rested in between games and we'll be able to see Newcastle

09:45 perform to their identity on Eddie Howe because that's what the Newcastle team is. It's built on

09:51 high intensity without running, without battling and unfortunately with the lack of bodies that

09:56 they've had and the lack of recovery time, Newcastle haven't been able to play to their full

10:01 potential. So I suppose there is positives, if you like, from going out in Europe in terms of

10:08 the rest of the season, but as we sit here now, it's really difficult because they worked so hard

10:13 last season to get into the Champions League and unfortunately before Christmas, they have no

10:19 European football to look for now, but I don't want to have doom and gloom. I think there'll

10:24 be enough of that after this game. Let's try and be positive and hopefully the exit of European

10:31 football allows Newcastle to try and in many ways turn around their season and really mount a top

10:36 four push. It's going to be hard, but I do think the extra rest in between games could fully benefit

10:43 them in terms of being that team that we all know and Eddie Howe and that's high intensity.

10:48 Newcastle didn't dare to dream tonight, they fell short. I'm pretty sure everybody who comes to the

10:53 stadium in the future will dare to dream again and I'm sure at one point in the future, whether it's

10:59 this competition or another, those dreams will eventually come true. You can check everything

11:04 that Jordan here has done around the night on newcastleworld.com and also keep an eye out for

11:13 any previews for Fulham which will be coming up in the next few days as well as a whole host of

11:17 other things. So check out all the social channels whether that be on Facebook, whether that be on

11:21 Twitter, Instagram for anything around the night's action and also check Jordan out on Twitter as

11:27 well for any Newcastle United updates.

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