Excellent news as Newcastle United stay above Champions League line – Wednesday update | OneFootball

Tuesday night was another great Champions League night, as Newcastle United defeated Benfica.

Not only a very valuable three points, United also boosting their goal difference.

With a narrow home defeat to Barcelona and a four goal victory in Brussels against Union S-G, after three Champions League games it meant Eddie Howe and his team had six points and a goal difference of +6.

That win over Jose Mourinho and his team meant that on Wednesday morning, Newcastle United were seventh top in the Champions League table.

Remember, the top eight will automatically go through to the last 16 knockout stage.

Whilst those finishing 9th to 24th will go into two-legged play-offs to decide the other eight that will make up the final 16.

However, Tuesday night’s results only took us to the halfway point in the third round of Champions League matches, with another nine games on Wednesday night.

This is how they turned out;

Athletic Bilbao 3 Qarabag 1

Galatasaray 3 Bodo/Glimt 1

Atalanta 0 Slavia Prague 0

Bayern Munich 4 Club Brugge 0

Chelsea 5 Ajax 1

Eintracht Frankfurt 1 Liverpool 5

Monaco 0 Spurs 0

Real Madrid 1 Juventus 0

Sporting Lisbon 2 Marseille 1

So where does that leave Newcastle United now, after last night’s results?

This is how the Champions League table now looks on Thursday (23 October 2025) morning:

As you can see, great news as Newcastle United have stayed above the line, after last night’s results they are still in an automatic qualifying place for the last 16 knockout stages.

It shows how important goal difference could prove to be in the final analysis.

Seven clubs are on six points but Newcastle United top of those teams, due to their goal difference, the likes of Liverpool and Chelsea remain below United, despite winning last night.

With Athletic Bilbao coming to St James’ Park two weeks today (Wednesday 5 November), a great opportunity to further cement that top eight place in the table and take another massive step towards the last 16 of the Champions League.

The remaining five Champions League matches for Newcastle United:

Wednesday 5 November – Newcastle v Athletic Bilbao (8pm)

Tuesday 25 November – Marseille v Newcastle (8pm)

Wednesday 10 December – Bayer Leverkusen v Newcastle (8pm)

Wednesday 21 January- Newcastle v PSV (8pm)

Wednesday 28 January – PSG v Newcastle (8pm)

As you can see from the table above, PSG top the current Champions League table with three wins and a +10 goal difference.

However, Newcastle’s other four remaining opponents have only won three of their collective twelve matches so far.