Date and times confirmed for Newcastle United's Champions League play-off - Get your boss informed you're having an early finish
Newcastle United learned their Champions League fate this morning after the draw for the play-offs were held in Switzerland.
After missing out on automatic progression on Wednesday, Newcastle will now have to play a two-legged play-off to see if they are worthy of a place in the knock-out phase of the competition.
Ahead of this morning's draw, Newcastle knew they'd face either Monaco or Qarabag, with the latter proving to be the Magpies' opponents.
As the seeded team, Newcastle got the benefit of a home tie in the second leg, meaning the Magpies are off to Baku for the first leg.
The first leg of Newcastle's Champions League play-off is an early kick-off
The dates and times of both of those games have now been confirmed with the first leg set to be an early evening kick-off, so get your excuses in at work quickly. As confirmed by Newcastle United's official site, the fixtures are set as follows:
"The first leg will take place at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku on Wednesday, 18th February, with kick-off set at 5:45pm (GMT).
"The second leg will be staged at St. James' Park on Tuesday, 24th February. Kick-off has been set at 8pm (GMT).
A tie against Barcelona or Chelsea awaits if Newcastle successfully overcome Qarabag
The reward for coming through this play-off victorious will be a place in the last 16 of the competition, where they will face either Chelsea or Barcelona.
Obviously, we have to get past Qarabag first, but another tie against Barcelona is something we can do without.
However, as we've said plenty of times this season, To be the best, you've got to beat the best, so it doesn't matter who we get, we still have to win. He says as if we've got a realistic chance of lifting the Champions League trophy. I mean ... imagine.
