00:00So, Newcastle United are back in Champions League action on Tuesday night when they faced Benfica at St. James' Park.
00:06Now, they got beat in their first game at St. James' Park against Barcelona, but replied in the perfect manner, really, in that competition by defeating Union Saint-Groës 4-0 in Belgium.
00:17So, going into tomorrow's game, Newcastle will obviously want to win at home.
00:21They're relying on their home results to really get them over the line, get them into the knockout stages for the first time.
00:27And, of course, their home record in the Champions League of recent hasn't been great.
00:30You know, other than that PSG result two years ago, they've lost all the other ones since.
00:35So, they're really hoping they can finally stamp a marker in the Champions League in front of their own fans.
00:41Now, Benfica have enjoyed a fairly solid start to life under Jose Mourinho.
00:46He replaced Bruno Large in the role last month.
00:49They were beaten by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in their previous Champions League out-in.
00:54And so, that could be one where Newcastle look at and think, well, if Chelsea can beat them, then so can wait.
00:59I think Eddie Howe will be targeting a win, of course.
01:01He'll be targeting a win.
01:02I think that this game, and with Athletic Club to come next month at home, they'll be the ones that can get three points in each of those games.
01:10They'll have had nine points from four games, and they'll be really confident of finally progressing to a knockout stage.
01:15But it's not going to be easy against Benfica.
01:17It's not going to be easy against Jose Mourinho, of course.
01:19We'll talk about his regularity in James' Park, but let's not forget, he would love to get a win over Newcastle United.
01:24Of course he would.
01:26He's going to have his team up for this game.
01:28They know how important it is.
01:31They've lost their first two games, so they'll know they have to start getting wins.
01:34And as much as Newcastle will look at Benfica and think maybe they are a better team, and then Benfica will look at Newcastle, see what happened at the weekend against Brighton, and think we can really get at them.
01:43We can really frustrate them.
01:44We all know how Mourinho's teams will play.
01:46They'll try and frustrate Newcastle and try and either hit them on the break or, you know, nick a goal when they can.
01:51So Newcastle have to be patient tomorrow.
01:53They'll have to find a way to break Benfica down, but they'll hope that they can get the momentum from the crowd.
01:58They can get some of their better players performing.
02:00You know, they were seen in the league, some of their wide options especially haven't really hit the heights that was promised of them this year.
02:06So hopefully if they can do that this year, they can get support, sorry, tomorrow, they can get support of Nick Valdemar up front.
02:12That could be the key to success.
02:14They'll have to put the Brighton defeat out of their minds.
02:16They didn't play very well at all on Saturday.
02:19You know, I think that'll be what Eddie Howe reflects on.
02:21And sort of hopefully this team can forget about it because games keep coming thick and fast.
02:25Benfica tomorrow night is a massive game.
02:27And all of a sudden you've got Fulham on Saturday.
02:29That's a huge game.
02:30And then you've got a Carabao Cup game as well.
02:31They don't want to go out of the Carabao Cup as old as, especially on their own turf.
02:36So it's going to be a big game against Jose Mourinho's Benfica tomorrow.
02:40Injury news is pretty similar to Saturday.
02:43The three players out live from Mendo Hall and Wissab won't play.
02:47And Jamala Sells is ineligible to play.
02:49He wasn't named in their squad.
02:50So he won't be able to feature alongside John Ruddy and Mark Gillespie.
02:53So it's pretty much as you were from Saturday.
02:55What Eddie Howe does with his team, I'm not too sure.
02:57He'll speak to the media later today, so we'll probably get some clues from that.
03:01Whether he decides to mix it up, whether he decides to go to the try and test it, who knows?
03:05Only Eddie Howe will know that and his players.
03:06So yeah, huge game for Newcastle United at St James' Park.
03:09They need a win.
03:10They need to reinvigorate their season again after disappointing them at Brighton.
03:15And if they can do that, then they go into the Fulham game on Saturday with a completely different mindset.
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