The bright lights of the Champions League will shine down on St. James’ Park Thursday when Barcelona visits Newcastle in Matchweek 1.
Barcelona is among the favorites to win the trophy alongside Liverpool, PSG, Arsenal, and Bayern Munich, while Newcastle United is viewed as a dark horse that would be ecstatic with a trip to the quarterfinals.
It’s been a bit of an uneven start to the campaign, both on and off the field, for Newcastle, so it’s no wonder that Barca are the favorites to win Thursday’s match.
(3 p.m. ET, Paramount+)
The first few weeks of the Magpies’ season were dominated by transfer talk. Aleksander Isak, the club’s talismanic striker, forced a move to Liverpool, leaving Newcastle in a tricky position.
The Magpies would eventually relent, allowing Isak to leave for over $170 million, making it the third-most expensive transfer in history behind only PSG’s acquisitions of Neymar and Kylian Mbappe.
Losing a player like Isak is never a good thing, but it at least settled the squad, and it does seem that Newcastle has unearthed another terrific striker in Nick Woltemade.
If Woltemade is the goods, the Magpies will have more than enough attacking talent to hang around the top-four in the Premier League table.
Beating Barcelona, on the other hand, is a different story.
Barcelona are not one of Europe’s elite defensive sides, but their ability to create offense is unmatched in Europe. The Catalans led the Big 5 leagues with 102 goals and 91.5 expected goals (xG) in 2024-25, and they’re already at 13 goals and 9.7 xG through four matches this season.
Newcastle’s defense has been superb in the Premier League, but they’ve sacrificed a lot of offense to ensure they are solid in their own end to start the new campaign.
The Magpies certainly have a chance of shutting down shop and containing Barcelona, especially with this game taking place in Tyneside, but it seems more likely than not that the Spanish giants get this match on their terms.
The Play: Barcelona +135 (FanDuel)
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.