STAR FOOTBALL PREVIEW Weds: Qarabag v Newcastle

Newcastle United’s fans are used to making long trips, and the Toon Army will be hoping for a positive outcome when they visit Qarabag in this afternoon’s Champions League play-off, writes WILLIAM KEDJANYI.

Eddie Howe’s men just missed out on a spot in the top eight, playing well enough in their final League Stage game considering the task they had when facing PSG at the Parc des Princes. A slightly rotated side performed with decent credit there for all that the reigning Champions were too strong, but the starsports.bet odds give them a much better chance of getting through their play-off against Qarabag, with the visitors just 4/11 at the time of writing to take a lead back to Tyneside next week.

Qarabag have arguably already exceeded expectations by reaching this stage, They are not European novices by any stretch of the imagination (they nearly knocked out Xabi Alonso’s Bayer Levekusen), but they have performed with real credit, coming from 2-0 down to win 3-2 at Benfica, beating Copenhagen and Eintracht Frankfurt, and also holding Chelsa to a 2-2 draw along the way.

Mixed into that campaign are defeats to Athletic Bilbao (3-1), Napoli (2-0), Ajax (4-2), and Liverpool (6-0), although three of those were on the road, an important detail ahead of this first-leg clash.

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Qarabag v Newcastle
UEFA Champions League Play-Off 1st Leg
17:45 Amazon Prime Video

LAST FIVE STATS

HEAD-TO-HEAD
First meeting between teams

QARABAG
FEB 2026 AZERBAIJAN LEAGUE Imishli FK 0-1 Qarabag
FEB 2026 AZERBAIJAN LEAGUE Shamakhi 1-2 Qarabag
FEB 2026 AZERBAIJAN CUP Shamakhi 2-1 Qarabag
FEB 2026 AZERBAIJAN LEAGUE Qarabag 1-0 Turan
JAN 2026 EUROPEAN CUP Liverpool 6-0 Qarabag

NEWCASTLE
FEB 2026 FA CUP Aston Villa 1-3 Newcastle
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Tottenham 1-2 Newcastle
FEB 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Newcastle 2-3 Brentford
FEB 2026 CARABAO CUP Manchester City 3-1 Newcastle
JAN 2026 PREMIER LEAGUE Liverpool 4-1 Newcastle

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Newcastle’s season has been a tale of two halves. At St James’s Park, they are one of the toughest teams going – the only teams to win there this season are Arsenal, Manchester City, Barcelona, Aston Villa and Brentford – but on the road they’ve won just four of 19 games in all competitions.

It’ll be a much-needed mental boost for Eddie Howe that two of those away victories have come back to back with successes at Tottenham and Aston Villa, although the form needs treating with caution given that Spurs fired Thomas Frank straight afterwards, whilst their FA Cup win at Aston Villa was changed completely by Marco Bizot’s wild red card challenge just before half-time.

The Magpies were badly refereed up until that point in the game so deserve some credit for getting a good result at Villa Park, where Sandro Tonali produced a man of the match performance, Jacob Ramsey was effective in midfield and Nick Woltemade looked more effective than he has done in recent weeks.

They will need all that and more here though against a Qarabag side who took 7 out of their 10 group stage points at ‘home’ (they use a different stadium to their normal home, which hasn’t hurt them at all), and pack a decent attacking punch in the shape of the Camilo Duran and Leandro Andrade, who have scored seven goals between them.

Considering all those factors, 4/11 on the visitors with starsports.bet looks very short and the hosts are worth supporting with a handicap start.

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PROFIT/LOSS (FEB 2026): +18.15 points

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