Newcastle United return to Champions League action at Union Saint-Gilloise on Wednesday night.
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Newcastle United opened their 2025/26 Champions League campaign with a 2-1 defeat to Barcelona but will be looking to put things right in Belgium this week.
The Magpies travel to face Champions League newcomers Union Saint-Gilloise in Brussels on Wednesday evening (5:45pm kick-off). Newcastle will be hoping to pick up their first away win of the season and first Champions League away win since a 3-1 win at Bayer Leverkusen in 2003.
Newcastle are competing in the new 36-team group phase format for the first time. The format sees the top eight sides qualify for the last-16 while teams ranked ninth to 24th take part in a seeded knockout round play-off tie.
Teams ranked 25th and below exit the competition and Europe entirely, a change from the previous format, which saw teams ranked third in the four team groups enter the Europa League.
The new format sees United face eight different clubs, four at home and four away. After Barcelona and Union SG, they face Benfica, Athletic Bilbao and PSV Eindhoven at St James’ Park along with trips to Marseille, Bayer Leverkusen and holders Paris Saint-Germain.
Newcastle have never reached the knockout round of the Champions League having qualified for the group stage three times previously. In 2002/03, The Magpies managed to get out of their initial group but entered a second group phase as part of an old last-16 format.
Last time out in the Champions League in 2023/24, Newcastle got off to a strong start with a 0-0 draw at AC Milan followed up with a memorable 4-1 win over PSG. The Magpies sat top of their group after two games but ended up finishing bottom after taking just one more point from their final four group matches.
Newcastle sit 26th out of 36 teams after losing against Barcelona, while Union SG sit 5th after beating PSV 3-1 in their first ever Champions League group match.
Newcastle are one of a record six English teams competing in the Champions League this season. The Magpies entered the competition through the European Performance Spot route that granted fifth place in the Premier League entry to Europe’s elite club competition.
They joined last season’s top four of Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea as well as Europa League winners Tottenham Hotspur, who finished the league season in 17th place.
This season, an Opta supercomputer has predicted the Champions League group phase table and ranked every side based on their expected points (xpts) total, taking into account the matchday one results.
Champions League group phase table predicted
The Opta table from bottom to top heading into matchday two is as follows...
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