Two Newcastle stars now on the brink of suspension
With just three games left in the league phase of our Champions League campaign, there’s still plenty of work to do if we want to ensure progression to the knockout stage.
After our 2-1 defeat at Marseille and Wednesday night’s fixtures, we now sit 11th our of 36 in the league phase slipping three spots after wins for Real Madrid, Sporting Lisbon and Atalanta saw us leapfrogged last night.
With tough games away to Bayer Leverkusen and PSG either side of the home game against the in-form PSV Eindhoven, we’ll need to be in the best shape possible if we want to qualify automatically for the knockout stages.
However, there two Eddie Howe favourites now walking a suspension tightrope as we prepare for our final three games of the league phase...
Burn and Big Joe at risk
Both Dan Burn and Joelinton face the risk of a one game suspension if they pick up another card in the Champions League.
Joelinton was on the bench for the entire game against Marseille, meanwhile Burn was one of three players amongst the lads to pick up a booking, alongside Joe Willock and Anthony Gordon.
A third yellow card for either player in our remaining three games and they will face a on-game ban. A card against Leverkusen means they miss our home clash with PSV, while a booking against the Dutch side would see them sit out our trip to PSG.
Even a yellow card at PSG or any knockout game (should we make it) would lead to a suspension, with the three yellow card rule carrying over until the quarter-finals.
UEFA’s rules on cards and suspensions state that yellow cards are only wiped after the quarter-finals end: “All yellow cards expire on completion of the quarter-finals. They are not carried forward to the semi-finals.”
Toon stacked in both positions
As big a miss as either Burn or Joelinton would be for a game later in the competition, centre back and centre midfield are two of our stronger positions in terms of squad depth.
For Burn, each of Sven Botman, Fabian Schar and Malick Thiaw are available and offer reliable options should big man from Blyth miss out.
Meanwhile we saw on Tuesday night Joe Willock deputise for the Brazilian. Though one would fancy Lewis Miley or Jacob Ramsey to have equal chance of featuring alongside Bruno Guimaraes and Sandro Tonali in the wake of a Joelinton suspension.
It’s imperative that everyone is fit and available for the PSG game, though an ideal world we can go to the Parc des Princes not needing to win to secure qualification for the next round. So if anyone’s going to pick up a yellow card between now and the end of the league phase, make it happen against Leverkusen and not PSV.
