Champions League: Newcastle dare AC Milan for knockout stage ticket

The St James’ Park faithful will do their black and white scarves for a momen­tous Champi­ons League occasion today as Newcastle United and AC Milan fight for the right to reach the knockout rounds.

Neck-and-neck in the Group F standings with five points to their name, the Magpies currently have the edge over the Rossoneri on goal difference, but both sides still need results elsewhere to go their way if they are to dine at Europe’s top table that little bit longer.

The great VAR debate was reopened when Newcastle pitted their wits against French cham­pions, Paris Saint-Germain, two weeks ago, where an Alexander Isak strike in the first half had the Magpies on the verge of arguably their most famous con­tinental triumph in history.

However, as the ball bounced off of Tino Livramento’s thigh and onto his elbow in injury time, referee Szymon Marciniak saw fit to award PSG a last-gasp penalty, which Kylian Mbappe converted to deny the Magpies all three points in the cruellest and most controversial of circumstances.

It is not all doom and gloom for the third-placed hosts just yet, though, as Newcastle still possess the superior head-to-head tally against PSG who are only two points better off so victo­ry on Wednesday coupled with Les Parisiens’ failure to beat an already-qualified Borussia Dort­mund would send Eddie Howe’s team through.

Any other scenario would either force the Magpies down to Europa League football or send

 them packing from the continent entirely, and despite soldiering on admirably through their wealth of injuries, a lack of options appears to have caught up to Howe’s team at the worst possible time.

Indeed, Newcastle’s most recent two Premier League clashes with Everton and Tottenham Hotspur have seen the Magpies suffer consecutive losses by an aggregate score of 7-1, but neither of those contests took place at St James’ Park, where eight of New­castle’s last nine in all competitions have seen the hosts prevail.

Working around an unenviable injury list has been nothing new for Milan head coach, Stefano Pi­oli, either, but the road to the last 16 is a little more complicated for the Rossoneri, whose penultimate Group F clash at home to Borus­sia Dortmund was a chastening affair.

The German outfit sealed their place in the knockout rounds via a 3-1 success on the San Siro soil, three weeks after the Rossoneri had kept their dwindling hopes alive by beating PSG on home turf, and they begin the final match day at bottom of the ‘group of death’ rankings.

Newcastle will go through with a win and a PSG draw, but Milan’s head-to-head goal tally is inferior to the French champi­ons, so Pioli’s side must triumph at St James’ Park and hope that Dortmund defeat PSG if they are to sneak into the second last-16 spot.

As was the case with Newcas­tle, Milan also came out on the wrong end of a five-goal thriller away from home in Saturday’s Serie A clash with Atalanta BC, coming from behind twice only to succumb to a Luis Muriel strike in the fifth minute of sec­ond-half injury time, which made it four games without an away win for Pioli’s team.

The Rossoneri have conceded 10 goals on rival turf over that stretch, but they were stunted in a 0-0 draw during their maiden meeting with Newcastle at San Siro in September, where the Magpies faced a 25-shot on­slaught and still left with a point. However, as only a victory will do for both teams on Tyneside, goalless lightning should not strike twice today.

Today’s Fixtures

RB Leipzig vs. Young Boys
Red Star vs. Man City
Antwerp vs. Barcelona
Atletico vs. Lazio
Celtic vs. Feyenoord
Dortmund vs. PSG
Newcastle vs. AC Milan
Porto vs. Shakhtar
-SportsMole

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