Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento on bench - Newcastle United team news as Magpies take on Barcelona in Champions League

Newcastle United face Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League Round of 16 at St James' Park tonight. Kick-off is at 8pm live on Amazon Prime Video.

Eddie Howe has labelled this as one of the biggest games in Newcastle's history, and given that a knockout phase game is new ground for Newcastle, the man has a point.

You'd expect, then, that Howe would go with the strongest team he has available to him, which suggests that there could be an issue with Anthony Gordon.

Gordon has been Newcastle's best player in the Champions League and is up there in the top scoring charts in the competition, so for him to be on the bench is a big red flag.

Anthony Gordon's absence from the starting lineup is a worry

Anthony Gordon didn't start against Manchester City on Saturday either, but having trained this week, we thought whatever niggling problem he had was behind him, but we guess not.

Tino Livramento also came off the bench against Manchester City, but he's also not deemed fit enough to start tonight, despite Howe dropping a hint in his press conference yesterday.

That means Kieran Trippier starts at right back with the rest of the back four made up of Malick Thiaw, Dan Burn and Lewis Hall.

Newcastle have plenty of pace up front

The midfield trio is as expected. Sandro Tonali will have Jacob Ramsey and Joelinton to help him out tonight in what will be a key battle.

Up front, it's Harvey Barnes and Anthony Elanga supporting Will Osula, who has been given another chance to shine on the big stage.

That pace could prove to be vital as we expect Newcastle to try and hit Barcelona on the counter. We just hope that they can actually produce something of note when they get in behind the Barca defence.

HOWAY EDDIE HOWE'S CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MAGS!!