Six players at risk of ban ahead of Newcastle vs Barcelona - Ones to watch tonight

Newcastle United’s biggest game of the season so far takes place on Tuesday night when we once again host Barcelona in the Champions League at St James’ Park.

Whilst looking to avenge September’s 2-1 loss to Hansi Flick’s side, Eddie Howe and the lads will aim to go further than any Newcastle team has ever gone before in European football’s premier competition.

And to do that, we’ll need as much of the team fit and available across both legs to compete with the in-form Spanish champions.

But looking further ahead to the second leg at the Nou Camp next week, two Newcastle stars will need to be on their best behaviour if they want to feature. Meanwhile a number of Barcelona talents also risk missing out on the second leg themselves…

Newcastle players at risk of Champions League suspension

Heading into Tuesday’s huge tie, both Joelinton and Dan Burn are just a booking away from missing the return leg next week.

UEFA’s current rules dictate that accumulating three yellow cards (without getting a red) means a player will serve a one game suspension for the next game in the competition.

And yellow cards also don’t reset until upon completion of the quarter-finals, so should we progress against Barcelona, the pair will still need to avoid a booking if they want to play both legs against either Spurs or Atletico Madrid.

Joelinton in particular would be a huge miss, as Howe is already limited in terms of his midfield options, as Lewis Miley is simply a maybe for the game at the Nou Camp, whilst Bruno Guimaraes won’t be available until April at the earliest.

Malick Thiaw has already served his one game suspension in the second leg of our play-off against Qarabag, so he enters the last 16 free from the risk of missing the second leg barring he gets a red card on Tuesday night.

Four Barca stars also risk missing out

However, whilst we have just the pair of players who face missing the return leg, Barcelona have twice as many players to be worried about.

Each of Lamine Yamal, Fermin Lopez, Marc Casado and Gerard Martin are just a booking away from missing the next game: any of whom missing out would be a huge boost to our chances of progression.

Should Martin get himself suspended, this will leave the Catalan giants without a natural left back at the Nou Camp, with Alejandro Balde set to miss both legs due to a hamstring injury.

And of course, Yamal and Fermin Lopez have been amongst the very best players on the continent this campaign, so the prospect of avoiding either player is one we would relish.