Newcastle United will face Barcelona in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Champions League
Anthony Gordon had a fitness issue in Newcastle United’s last match(Image: George Wood/Getty Images)
Both Newcastle United and Barcelona will have players on the sidelines for their Champions League clash this week. The Magpies will host the La Liga giants at St James’ Park in the first leg of their last-16 tie in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Eddie Howe and Co. go into the game on the back of a 3-1 defeat to Manchester City in the FA Cup over the weekend, which saw Newcastle’s chances of winning a trophy come to an end.
As a result, Newcastle’s only hope of winning any silverware this season rests on the Champions League, and they will have to get past Barcelona over two legs in order to reach the quarter-final of the competition.
Newcastle have been dealing with injuries throughout the season, and it will be no different when they face Barcelona on Tuesday night.
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Tino Livramento is expected to feature in the matchday squad after making his return from a hamstring injury during the defeat to Man City, where he made a cameo appearance from the bench.
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“He [Livramento] probably hasn’t done enough training to be 100% confident he is in a physical enough state to start,” Howe told reporters on Monday.
“It’s a delicate balance but he trained again this morning, he trained on Friday and it’s a massive boost for us to have him back.”
However, the Magpies are expected to be without Emil Krafth, Bruno Guimaraes, Fabian Schar and Lewis Miley for the clash against Barcelona.
Jacob Murphy emerged as a fitness concern from the defeat to Man City, with Howe stating at the weekend that the forward had a neck injury.
“We’re in a cycle where we just need to get some players back fit and get some of the strength back in the group,” Howe said on Saturday.
“Again, I couldn’t use Jacob Murphy today because of a neck problem which he suffered yesterday and wanted to see how I felt in the warm-up to see if I could use him.”
There are also concerns about the fitness of Joelinton and Anthony Gordon. The duo featured from the bench against Man City, but Howe admitted that both players had injury concerns in the game.
“Anthony Gordon’s come in with an ankle problem, we had to protect him today,” Howe added on Saturday. “We had to protect Joelinton today with past experience. These players are too big to lose.”
All three players took part in training on Monday and Newcastle will hope to have the trio available for the last-16 tie.
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Barcelona will also be without some key players due to injury. Gavi, Jules Kounde, Andreas Christensen, Alejandro Balde and Frenkie de Jong are all expected to miss the fixture.
There were also concerns about Marcus Rashford’s fitness, with the Manchester United loanee making his return from a knee injury earlier this month.
Barcelona boss Hansi Flick provided an update on Rashford’s fitness ahead of the clash against Newcastle.
“Marcus was injured,” Flick said on Monday. “He has some days out but he is back and we will see. I am not decided yet but he is a good option.”