Sandro Tonali opened the scoring as Newcastle cruised into the Champions League last 16. Photo: AFP
NEWCASTLE:
Newcastle United completed their stroll into the Champions League last 16 with a 3-2 win over Qarabag on Tuesday to progress 9-3 on aggregate over the Azeri champions.
The Magpies will make up a six-strong contingent of English sides in the last 16 alongside Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester City and Tottenham.
A tie that involved an over 5,000-mile (8,000 kilometre) 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 Eddie 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.
Sandro Tonali fired in the rebound after Dan Burn’s shot was saved, before Joelinton stroked in Harvey Barnes’ cross.
“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 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.
That took the tally of goals conceded by Qarabag in the Champions League to 30 — a single season record in the competition.
A much tougher test lies ahead of Newcastle next month when they will take on either Barcelona or Chelsea in the last 16.
