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Eddie Howe is urging Newcastle United to seize a rare chance in Europe as Barcelona arrive at St. James’ Park for Tuesday’s Champions League last 16 first leg, with the head coach challenging the squad to emulate the famous 1997 victory over the same opponents.

The tie is already the second meeting between the sides this season, after Hansi Flick’s Barcelona opened their league phase campaign with a 2-1 win over Newcastle, leaving Howe’s team aware of the level needed to progress in this knockout stage.

Newcastle and Barcelona have met five times in European competition, all in the Champions League, with the English side winning only once. That success came in the first encounter, a 3-2 home win during the group stage in September 1997, while Barcelona triumphed in each of the following four matches.

The 1997 game remains defined by Faustino Asprilla’s hat-trick, supported by precise crosses from Keith Gillespie on the right flank, and Howe has been drawing on that memory as motivation for the current squad before a packed St. James’ Park watches another chapter of the rivalry.

“You couldn’t not watch that game, Howesaid of his memory of that clash almost 30 years ago. It was on terrestrial television. It was one of those legendary games. You want people in future years to be talking about this team. Tino Asprilla gets the hat-trick, a couple of them from Keith Gillespie’s delivery on the right. I want our players to be talked about in the same way in 20, 30, 40 years.”

Newcastle arrive in strong Champions League form, currently on the club’s longest unbeaten run in the competition at five matches, with three wins and two draws, and only one defeat across the last nine European games, a sequence that also includes six victories.

Meetings with Spanish clubs in this tournament have been limited, with Newcastle playing six such fixtures before this tie, winning twice and losing four times, though both victories came at St. James’ Park, against Barcelona in 1997 and in a 2-0 success over Athletic Club in November last year.

Data projections are cautious despite Newcastle’s positive sequence, with the Opta supercomputer rating their chances of reaching the quarter-finals at 36%, while the probability of advancing all the way to the Champions League final stands at 4%.

Howe’s vision for Newcastle vs Barcelona Champions League test

“I want the club to break new ground and to keep going in this competition having worked so hard to get here,Howe added. We are going to need to break new ground in terms of performance levels and when we need to perform, there is no better time than these two games. There’s only 16 teams left and we are one of them. We don’t want to waste that opportunity and this is a moment for us to grab it. Over my time of four years, we have worked really hard to get to this point.”

For Howe, who has spent four years building towards nights like this, the Barcelona tie represents both a reward for sustained progress and a test of whether Newcastle can convert improving statistics and rich history at St. James’ Park into another landmark Champions League result.

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