2025-26 UCL Round of 16: Second Leg – Barcelona vs Newcastle

Barcelona meet Newcastle in the second leg of their Round of 16 tie in the 2025-26 UEFA Champions League. 

With the tie locked at 1-1 on aggregate, victory would see Barcelona or Newcastle advance to the Quarter-Finals but another draw will send the tie to extra time and potentially penalties.

 

Team News

Barcelona have no fresh injury concerns after their 5-2 La Liga victory at home to Sevilla.

Alejandro Balde, Frenkie De Jong, Jules Kounde (hamstring), Andreas Christensen (ACL),  Jofre Torrents (calf) and Toni Fernandez (ankle) are ruled out.

Newcastle will welcome Sandro Tonali after he missed their 1-0 Premier League victory at Chelsea, due to illness.

Joe Willock (groin) faces late fitness checks but Emil Krafth, Lewis Miley (both knee), Bruno Guimaraes (hamstring) and Fabian Schar (ankle) remain absent.

 

When is Kick-Off?

Barcelona host Newcastle at Nou Camp on Wednesday 18 March at 6:45pm CET (5:45pm UK Time), live on TNT Sports 2 in the UK.

 

Stat Attack

• Barcelona have lost one of their six previous Champions League meetings against Newcastle (W4, D1, L1).
• Newcastle have lost their two previous Champions League visits to Barcelona (L2), having lost 1-0 in November 1997 then 3-1 in December 2002.
• Barcelona are yet to keep a clean sheet in this season’s Champions League (W5, D2, L2).
• 16 of Newcastle’s 27 goals in this season’s Champions League have been scored by Anthony Gordon (10) and Harvey Barnes (6).

 

Prediction

Although they’re favourites to advance, Barcelona were largely outplayed at Newcastle and lucky to not be coming into this home leg a goal down on aggregate, but I do expect a serious response here especially off the back of their ruthless win against Sevilla.

Newcastle meanwhile know that this is realistically their best route of European qualification for next season and as underdogs, I think that they will relish the pressure being on Barcelona if they can dominate like they did in the first leg and especially off the back of a rare league win at Chelsea on Saturday.

I however just can’t see Barcelona losing this if they turn up firing on all cylinders but Newcastle should give them a good battle.

Prediction: Barcelona 2-1 Newcastle

Result: Barcelona 7-2 Newcastle (Barcelona win 8-3 on aggregate)