00:01Newcastle United's loss away at Brighton on Saturday was, in a word, disappointing.
00:06The Seagull's first goal will have annoyed Eddie Howe from a defensive point of view
00:10and, whilst Newcastle then got themselves level, Brighton were able to hit back and win the match.
00:16The Magpies have since been in training to try and correct those mistakes.
00:23Having another match come so quickly after that defeat will be exactly what Eddie Howe and his squad would have wanted.
00:29But, the fixture in question sees Newcastle host Jose Mourinho's Benfica, here at St James' Park, under the lights in the Champions League.
00:37Whilst their Premier League form has been inconsistent, the Magpies did win away in Brussels against Union San Gelas in their last European match.
00:46And, they will be hoping to follow that up with a victory on Titanside to really bolster their chances of progressing from the league phase of this competition.
00:55The match though, like Barcelona's visit to the North East in September, comes with slightly more to it than the average fixture for Newcastle United.
01:05First though, on team news, Sandro Tonali is a slight doubt with illness, which Eddie Howe made clear could be an opportunity for the likes of Jacob Ramsey or Lewis Miley.
01:19Yeah, they have Champions League experience, but they're also very, very good players.
01:23Yeah, I think we've got a really strong midfield this year.
01:27So, if one player is missing, it's an opportunity for a very good player to come in and grab theirs.
01:31So, yeah, I thought both players did well when they came on on Saturday.
01:35The return of Jose Mourinho to St James' is the big talking point though, as Howe recalled previous meetings with him.
01:42Yeah, just great games. I think any Premier League win, I always said to you guys, any Premier League win is savoured, regardless of where you are.
01:54It's so difficult to do it in the Premier League and especially against, at that stage of my career, you know, Chelsea were one of the strongest teams in the league.
02:03And I think some great wins for us at the time, being Bournemouth manager gave us the belief that we could compete in the Premier League, being a newly promoted team.
02:11You need every shot of confidence you can get.
02:14So, yeah, I look back fondly with those games, but obviously this game is very different.
02:19It's, you know, a different kind of experience.
02:23We now, and we've said this before the previous Champions League game, we're desperate to qualify in the competition.
02:28We know the importance of our home games.
02:30So, after the disappointment at Barcelona, we're looking forward to this one.
02:33Newcastle's number one, Nick Pope, was hoping that such an occasion will bring out the best of St James' Park.
02:39Yeah, of course, something, you know, we speak about within the group is, you know, the atmospheres that the home Champions League games bring
02:46and, you know, the experiences we've had over the last couple of years.
02:50So, yeah, a real special night ahead and, yeah, a game that, you know, I always look forward to.
02:56For Jose Mourinho, though, returning to Newcastle is special, given his ties to Sir Bobby Robson.
03:03Sir Bobby is a legend here.
03:05And in England, when you are a legend, there are many reasons to be a legend.
03:09He loved this club, he gave everything to this club.
03:16Of course, he would be so happy with that victory in the Cup.
03:22I was very happy.
03:24I know that he's not the target.
03:27I know that Newcastle and all the Georgies, what they want, is bigger than the League Cup.
03:33But the League Cup is the beginning.
03:35To play in the Champions League is another very important step.
03:42And I think the club goes in the right direction.
03:46Many clubs with new owners, with fresh money, lots of wrong decisions, lots of ups and downs.
03:57Newcastle, since the moment they have the new ownership, Eddie, stability.
04:05Jose Mourinho has always talked fondly of Newcastle United.
04:09And, in years gone by, many on Tyneside perhaps would have wished that he had been in charge of the Magpies during the peak years of his managerial career.
04:18Despite his affection though, he will be out to silence the special atmosphere at St James' Park as he described it.
04:24It will be up to Eddie Howe, Nick Pope and the rest of Newcastle United to bounce back from the defeat against Brighton.
04:30And, make Mourinho's return to the North East a miserable one.
04:34And, continue what is actually quite a poor record of results that the special one has endured against the Magpies when in charge of the visiting team.
04:44Of course, the best interest in the matter is that the magpies that the Magpies should also be able to have any problems.
04:50The Magpies is an interest in the Magpies that are in charge of the Magpies.
04:53But, when you go to St James' Park, I think it is important to see that the Magpies of the Magpies starts to allow more people to learn to organize the Magpies.
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