Joe Buck previews Newcastle United's clash with Benfica and what Eddie Howe's side must do to bounce back from their defeat against Brighton at the weekend and secure their second Champions League win of the season.
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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