‘Those teams will not want to play Newcastle’

Former Newcastle defender Steve Howey said Paris St-Germain, Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan “will not want to play” the Magpies in the Champions League: “It’s absolutely brilliant that they’ve got these teams. When you look at all the groups, that is possibly the toughest.

“You look at the atmosphere that’s in St James’ Park now just for the league games on a Saturday afternoon which is amazing. When you look at the night games, they’ve got the flags and it’s packed and there’s a feelgood factor.

“The atmosphere will be absolutely electric and it will be something the fans deserve because they have been starved of it for such a long time.

“Those teams will not want to play Newcastle. They will think they are favourites and rightly so because they are teams that get into the Champions League pretty much every year.

“But if they are coming to St James’ and they think they have a God-given right to win that game then I’m sorry but they are in for a rude awakening. They are not going to like it [at St James’ Park]. The atmosphere is quite unique.”

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