Eddie Howe’s pre-match rallying cry ahead of Newcastle vs Barcelona

Tonight’s match is not only our biggest in a long and draining season, but perhaps THE biggest many of us have seen on Tyneside in our lifetime.

With that in mind, Howe has called on his team to “embrace the size of the game” and rise to the occasion, urging the players to give it all and seize their opportunity to become a Newcastle hero who is talked about like Tino Asprilla for generations to come.

“In 20, 30, 40 years’ time, I want our players to be talked about in the same way as Tino Asprilla,” Howe said. “This is an opportunity to grab a moment that we may never get again. You never know what life brings tomorrow, let alone future seasons.

“We don’t want to waste that opportunity. We don’t want to kick ourselves or think, “What if?”. In my time here, just over four years, we have worked to get to this point. As long as we perform to our maximum, I will accept the result. We want to try and get as close as we can to our very best.”

Howe then discussed our role has ‘underdogs’ heading into the tie, believing that tag has helped us in the past and could do again as we look to cause a huge upset on the biggest stage in European football.

“The underdog role, in my time here, has helped us. We are going to have to use every psychological tool that we can to help us because we are playing a very, very good team.

“We have to have that mentality (that it’s the biggest game in our recent history). We have to rise to the occasion and embrace size of the game. These are things that have helped us this season and we are looking for the same again.

“I’m desperate for the club to break new ground and to keep going in this competition having worked so hard to get here. If there’s a time for us to be at our absolute best, it’s now.”

In a season filled with more lows than highs, compounded by Saturday night’s latest cup exit to Man City, let’s hope we can deliver a winning performance to be proud at 8pm tonight.

Howay the lads!