When, on the eve of kick-off, Qarabag’s manager, Gurban Gurbanov, said Newcastle had “a style of play that does not suit us”, there were suggestions he was playing mind games.
Long before half-time it was fully apparent that, if anything, Gurbanov had rather understated things. Had this been a boxing match it would surely have been stopped after a matter of minutes. Qarabag were utterly overwhelmed by the pace of their guests and that of Anthony Gordon in particular. Gordon scored four times, taking his tally in the Champions League this season to 10.
It all ensured that the 1,998 Newcastle fans who had arrived on the banks of the Caspian Sea on a series of indirect flights via cities as far flung as Istanbul and Warsaw had their endurance rewarded by the most convincing of performances from Eddie Howe’s team.
Howe has had a fair share of problems in recent weeks but his players found this flying visit to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, and its Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium as restorative as a week’s spa break in the sun.
How Newcastle must wish more of their opponents attempted to play out from the back as ineptly as their Eurasian hosts. Not to mention surrender so supinely in the face of their aggressively physical, high-intensity press.
