Woltemade benched, Gordon starts! – Confirmed Newcastle and Barcelona line-ups

Eddie Howe’s Mags meet Hansi Flick’s Barcelona in our opening game of the league phase, with Newcastle looking to kick things off in style; much like our 4-1 win over PSG two seasons ago!

Here is how the two sides line up, featuring a few changes from our 1-0 win over Wolves on Saturday and a strong Barca side despite Lamine Yamal missing out:

Newcastle XI (4-3-3): Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Guimaraes, Joelinton, Elanga, Gordon, Barnes

Subs: Thompson, Ramsdale, Hall, Botman, Thiaw, Krafth, Osula, J.Murphy, Woltemade, Willock, Willock, A.Murphy, Miley

Barcelona XI (4-3-3): Garcia, Araujo, Cubarsi, Kounde, Gerard Martin, de Jong, Pedri, Fermin Lopez, Raphinha, Lewandowski, Rashford

Subs: Ferran Torres, Christensen, Casado, Olmo, Bernal, Eric Garcia, Szczesny, Jofre, Roony, Fernandez, Kochen

Anthony Gordon comes back into the side, as he is only banned for domestic games, while Anthony Elanga returns on the right wing.

Nick Woltemade starts this one from the bench, as he’s likely going to have a big role in Sunday’s game against Bournemouth, meaning Gordon looks set to take up that false nine role, with Harvey Barnes keeping his place on the left.

The midfield trio remains the same and so does the back four, meaning Kieran Trippier starts again, with Lewis Hall on the bench along with Malick Thiaw and Sven Botman.

For Barcelona, Marcus Rashford has been given the nod over Ferran Torres in the attack, with Raphinha and Lewandowski both returning to the starting XI after prolific cameos against Valencia at the weekend.

Pedri is the one to watch however: arguably the best midfielder in world football right now, if we can isolate him, then we stand a very good chance at a result tonight.

With no Lamine Yamal or Gavi, the Barca subs bench still boasts some firepower: the aforementioned Torres, who has a hat trick at St James’ Park for Manchester City under his belt, and Dani Olmo each pose a threat.

Howay the lads!