Newcastle United did not even qualify for the Europa League, in addition to being eliminated from the Champions League.
With a draw sufficient to secure third place in their Champions League group, that was going to be the Magpies’ solace on Wednesday night.
But the dreamers are Eddie Howe’s side. Newcastle would have qualified for the Europa League even after AC Milan pulled even, but they pushed for the victory that would have moved them up to second.
That proved to be Newcastle’s downfall. Milan took the lead with a counterattack goal, leaving the Magpies empty-handed.
Now that our trip through Europe is complete, what a journey it has been. But to be absent is such a shame. It would have been fantastic to even get third and advance to the Europa League, since it would have given us an additional prize to compete for.
Rio Ferdinand, a pundit for TNT Sports, disagrees. He thinks Eddie Howe and the Newcastle players, on the other hand, would be happy that they won’t be playing in the Europa League.
Rio Ferdinand asserts boldly that Newcastle has exited the Champions League.
After Newcastle’s 2-1 loss to AC Milan, Ferdinand made an admission on TNT Sports that he believed Newcastle would be secretly happy to not qualify for the Europa League.
“With the amount of injuries they have, Eddie Howe and the players can’t say this, but I’m guaranteeing that they will be delighted not to go into the Europa League—Kieran Tripper just limped past us here,” he remarked.
“And a few are quite long term. So it makes it difficult to battle on many fronts when your squad is so thread bare. They have to get these players back fit and more and more games would make that more and more unlikely for those players to come back fit.”
Newcastle would have relished Europa League
I have to disagree with Ferdinand. While the dream was to advance in the Champions League, dropping into the Europa League would not have been a negative thing.
Yes, it would mean more games, but we are here to compete. We are here to challenge for honours.
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