Eddie Howe names strong side with Nick Woltemade back in midfield - Team news for NUFC to face Qarabag

Newcastle United are hoping to give themselves a leg up in the Champions League play-off this evening as they take on Qarabag in the first-leg in Baku.

Eddie Howe promised to put out as strong a team as possible, and he has delivered in spite of all the injury problems.

The bench looks rather weak, however, with three goalkeepers on there, but Joelinton makes a return to the matchday squad. There's no sign of Lewis Miley yet.

Nick Woltemade starts again after his goal against Aston Villa, but we suspect he's tucked into the three-man midfield like he was on Saturday.

Anthony Elanga starts for Newcastle tonight

The back line is how we expected, albeit with Dan Burn getting the nod ahead of Sven Botman, who is missing from the squad once again.

Sandro Tonali starts in midfield along with Joe Willock and Woltemade.

Anthony Elanga and Harvey Barnes will take up their places on the wings with Anthony Gordon through the middle.

Will Nick Woltemade work in midfield again?

The system worked on Saturday with Woltemade sitting deeper, so we'll be interested to see how he fares tonight to see if that was a one-off or whether Eddie Howe's done it again.

Jacob Ramsey, Jacob Murphy and Will Osula are the potential game-changing options on the bench.

Youngsters Alex Murphy, Leo Shahar and Sean Neave make up the remainder of the bench, but if we're going to see any of those three, it's only likely to be Murphy.