When, on the eve of kick-off, Qarabag’s supervisor, Gurban Gurbanov, stated Newcastle had “a mode of play that doesn’t swimsuit us”, there have been strategies he was enjoying thoughts video games.
Lengthy earlier than half-time it was totally obvious that, if something, Gurbanov had relatively understated issues. Had this been a boxing match it could certainly have been stopped after a matter of minutes. Qarabag have been completely overwhelmed by the tempo of their visitors and that of Anthony Gordon particularly. Gordon scored 4 instances, taking his tally within the Champions League this season to 10.
All of it ensured that the 1,998 Newcastle followers who had arrived on the banks of the Caspian Sea on a collection of oblique flights through cities as faraway as Istanbul and Warsaw had their endurance rewarded by probably the most convincing of performances from Eddie Howe’s workforce.
Howe has had a justifiable share of issues in current weeks however his gamers discovered this flying go to to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, and its Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium as restorative as per week’s spa break within the solar.
How Newcastle should want extra of their opponents tried to play out from the again as ineptly as their Eurasian hosts. To not point out give up so supinely within the face of their aggressively bodily, high-intensity press.
Qarabag have crushed Benfica, Eintracht Frankfurt and FC Copenhagen within the Champions League this season however they merely folded as Newcastle sprinted away with the primary leg of this playoff for a spot within the final 16.
The two,529 miles Howe’s squad had travelled was the longest away journey ever made by an English workforce within the Champions League.
Not that they confirmed too many indicators of jet lag after their six-hour flight from Tyneside. Certainly, the sport had barely begun earlier than Dan Burn found his internal Beckenbauer and, having stepped elegantly out of defence, equipped Gordon with a superbly weighted go.
The England winger, deployed at centre-forward right here, with Nick Woltemade within the No 10 function, wanted no invitation to lash residence his seventh Champions League aim of the season.
To not be upstaged, Burn’s central defensive associate Malick Thiaw swiftly scored a aim of his personal. When Kieran Trippier’s intelligent nook routine bamboozled Qarabag, Thiaw promptly headed Newcastle’s second aim past Mateusz Kochalski.
By now Gordon’s blistering acceleration was petrifying Qarabag however he relied on accuracy to attain once more from the penalty spot after Matheus Silva dealt with within the space.
His hat-trick was accomplished when he dispossessed Kevin Medina earlier than rounding Kochalski.
Then, when Kochalski introduced him down within the space, Gordon scored one other penalty. That second aside, Gurbanov’s goalkeeper had performed fairly nicely, proving largely answerable for retaining the rating in single figures.
Nick Pope had been a spectator till the second early within the second half when he was arguably crushed relatively too simply by Elvin Cafarquliyev’s low, onerous and simply onside shot. Newcastle’s defence had momentarily misplaced focus and, as Qarabag followers celebrated wildly and impressively, Howe appeared suitably disgruntled.
Gurbanov had switched his personal rearguard to a again 5 and Qarabag appeared significantly extra resilient.
Admittedly their trigger was virtually definitely aided by a raft of visiting substitutions – together with Gordon’s withdrawal – as Howe’s ideas apparently turned to Saturday night time’s Premier League match at Manchester Metropolis, the place the absence of the injured Bruno Guimarães could also be extra extra keenly felt.
Again in Baku, one in all Newcastle’s substitutes, Jacob Murphy, scored Newcastle’s sixth after reducing in from the proper and watching his curling left-foot shot deflected previous Kochalski.
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