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Eddie Howe adores motivational slogans and the Newcastle manager’s current favourite is: “One Brain.” The idea is to inspire his team to play with the sort of synchronicity that stems from a collective mindset and united purpose.
For a while here it seemed to be working a treat with Newcastle’s intelligence – both joint and individual – threatening to further humiliate Qarabag. But then, with a last-16 tie against either Barcelona or Chelsea assured, home concentration began wandering a little. Commendably, the Azerbaijani title holders fought back with Gurban Gurbanov’s side, and, in particular, their Colombian forward Camilo Durán, showing they can play a bit too. If the concession of nine goals over two legs is never ideal, Qarabag at least exited the Champions League on something of a minor high.
In the wake of his side’s chastening 6-1 first leg defeat in Baku last week, Gurbanov, Qarabag’s manager, had instructed his players to “be more careful and more responsible” on this truly fleeting visit to north-east England. Qarabag did not arrive on Tyneside until 11pm on Monday and were due to board a six-hour flight straight back to Azerbaijan after the final whistle here.
Throw in the four-hour time difference and it seemed a particularly exhausting schedule hardly conducive to making any sort of comeback.
In reality the most Gurbanov could hope for was a spot of pride restoration but the sight of his defender Kevin Medina kneeling on the turf and appearing to say a few prayers immediately before kick-off did not entirely inspire confidence.
Sure enough Qarabag’s newly configured five-man defence fell apart in the fourth minute when Sandro Tonali applied the final touch to an attacking move he had initiated.
Two minutes later Gurbanov was staring, fixedly, at the ground as Joelinton met Harvey Barnes’s cross on the volley and watched the ball fly beyond the helpless visiting goalkeeper Mateusz Kochalski.
Howe does not rank among football’s more enthusiastic rotators but, given that healthy first-leg lead, Newcastle’s manager felt sufficiently confident to make seven changes from the XI he sent out for Saturday’s narrow 2-1 Premier League defeat at Manchester City.
Such alterations meant that the 21-year-old Irish defender, Alex Murphy, was offered a first start at left-back while Howe’s leading Champions League scorer, Anthony Gordon, warmed the bench.
There was, though, a starting place for Nick Woltemade in a fluid attacking-midfield role behind William Osula. There is quite a debate as to whether the Germany striker – a player Newcastle paid £69m for last summer – is best deployed as a No 8, 9 or 10.
Here Woltemade offered a flexible interpretation of a No 10 with some of his clever link play confusing Qarabag to the point where they must have wondered if Uefa might offer them special dispensation to depart for the airport at half-time.
Yet as much as Gurbanov’s players looked a little nervous of Joelinton and found few real answers to Tonali’s elegant take on the No 6 brief, they refused to fold. Instead, to their immense credit, they improved considerably as the first half wore on with Aaron Ramsdale forced to stretch out a leg and make a smart save to deny Elvin Jafarguliyev. Suddenly, the home choruses of “Is this the way to Barcelona?” faded and died.
Admittedly Jacob Murphy missed an inviting chance after being deftly cued up by Woltemade but the Azerbaijani champions were not about to surrender and Ramsdale was required to make a flying save to keep a counterattacking shot from the dangerous Durán out. Durán is a talented forward and the 24-year-old Colombian’s name will doubtless have been noted by any watching Premier League scouts. By way of emphasising his potential Durán reduced the deficit at the outset of the second half after proving far too swift for Dan Burn and beating Ramsdale with a superlative shot.
Any visiting hopes of a draw on the night receded and then revived as first Sven Botman headed Kieran Trippier’s corner home and then Jafarguliyev scored from the rebound after Ramsdale had performed wonders to parry Marko Jankovic’s penalty awarded for Burn’s handball.
With Qarabag’s quick passing and swift movement troubling Newcastle, Joelinton and Tonali became drawn into silly arguments and the former looked disgruntled to be withdrawn, presumably to avoid collecting a second yellow card as Howe made a raft of substitutes. They included a debut for the 18-year-old England Under-19 right-back Leo Shahar. He, like Gurbanov, is unlikely to forget this late February Tyneside night.
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