Howe says win over Chelsea gives Newcastle necessary confidence ahead of Barcelona | OneFootball

Eddie Howe says Newcastle ‘needed’ to beat Chelsea to have any chance of beating Barcelona away in the Champions League.

The Magpies did beat Chelsea, 1-0, thanks to Anthony Gordon, and now look forward to the second leg of their round of 16 game against Barcelona next week.

The tie is currently 1-1 on aggregate and Howe said his side needed to beat Chelsea to have any chance in Spain: “I think we needed to win today to give us any chance of winning in Barcelona and progressing through the Champions League. 

“It’s such a difficult game, but you need that confidence that winning gives you, that’s back-to-back wins in the Premier League now, which is so important. We’ll be in a better place for today and now all eyes are on Barcelona.”

Newcastle had a bad record at Stamford Bridge going into the game, and had not won at the stadium in 14 years.

Howe said it was important to end that record: “I wasn’t aware the record was that bad here for us, so it’s nice to end that and get the win on so many levels today. 

“That was such an important victory with what we have coming up ahead this week with the two massive games. It’s great to go into those games with the good feeling that we have and I thought the mentality, the effort today was very, very good.”