Newcastle vs Qarabag Prediction & Betting Tips (24 February)

Newcastle’s showdown with Qarabag in the Champions League has taken on a different tone after the remarkable first leg in Baku, where Anthony Gordon lit up the night with four goals in a stunning 6-1 away win. That performance, backed up by strikes from Malick Thiaw and Jacob Murphy, has pushed the Magpies to the brink of the last 16 and dominated headlines over the past few days. Qarabag, who had enjoyed a solid European campaign to reach this stage, now travel to St James’ Park needing something extraordinary, while Newcastle look to turn a statement victory into a complete, professional tie.

In the build-up to the return meeting, Newcastle’s schedule has been relentless, with demanding domestic fixtures against Aston Villa and Tottenham adding extra context to their European push. Those recent league tests, alongside the Champions League trip to Azerbaijan, have underlined the physical and mental resilience Eddie Howe’s side must show at this point in the season. For Qarabag, the focus has been on regrouping quickly after the heavy defeat, tightening up defensively, and rediscovering the compact, disciplined structure that carried them through earlier qualifying rounds and into this high-profile knockout play-off.

Qarabag’s recent European journey has featured big-name opponents and high-intensity occasions, including clashes with Liverpool and Eintracht Frankfurt that have helped sharpen their competitive edge on the continental stage. Newcastle, meanwhile, have been steadily building their own European identity, learning from every away trip and feeding off the energy of their home crowd on Tyneside. The narrative around this tie over the last couple of months has shifted from curiosity about how the sides would match up to admiration for Newcastle’s attacking fluency and questions about whether Qarabag can rediscover their best version quickly enough to make the second leg genuinely uncomfortable for the Premier League side.

Looking ahead to the return at St James’ Park, the expectation is that Newcastle will still approach the game with intensity, but with a touch more control, knowing the onus is on Qarabag to chase the tie. With the visitors needing to open up, there should be space for Newcastle’s forwards to exploit again, and that shapes the outlook for a potential correct score of 3-0. That same scoreline of 3-0, echoed through recent analytical previews, feels realistic given the first-leg gap in quality, while further context from matches such as a projected 3-0 and Qarabag-focused insights like another suggested 3-0 underline the sense that a controlled, three-goal home victory is a plausible and coherent predict