Almiron could have scored

We’re 20 minutes or so from kick-off here, the teams are warming up (they need to; it’s freezing), and the atmosphere is bubbling away nicely. Wor Flags, the Newcastle tifo group, have a big display planned for the Gallowgate End – a few tears may be shed, they say – and it’s all set up to be an evening of sweeping emotion at St James’.

Newcastle’s return to the Champions League after 20 years already feels like an epic. Was it really only September that Eddie Howe and his players left the San Siro with a gritty, backs-to-the-wall 0-0 draw? It feels like eons ago. That 4-1 hammering of Paris Saint-Germain, those two flat losses to Borussia Dortmund, that incredible performance back in France …. And it’s still all to play for!