Newcastle United fans have been in a nostalgic mood at the start of October as they reflect on the year long anniversary of the team’s historic 4-1 Champions League triumph against Paris Saint Germain at St James’ Park.
The result, in many people’s eyes, is viewed as one of the team’s best performances under Eddie Howe and arguably Newcastle’s most famous European night of the 21st century. It saw local lads Sean Longstaff and Dan Burn getting amongst the goals alongside Miguel Almiron and Fabian Schar.
October also marks the anniversary of the high-profile PIF takeover – an event which made Newcastle the richest club in world football – and one which also marked the departure of former owner Mike Ashley after 14 years.
Howe arrived at Newcastle at the start of November 2021 after the departure of Steve Bruce and inherited a completely different Newcastle to the one currently at his disposal. The team were bottom of the league, winless in 11 matches and already five points adrift of safety.
Since then Howe has led the team to Premier League survival, a Carabao Cup final, Champions League qualification, a derby day victory in the cup over Sunderland and a whole host of impressive victories against some of the league’s highest performing teams.
But when asked about his best moment as Newcastle boss, Howe simply told the Shields Gazette in his pre-match press conference for the Everton game: “The best moment for me from the takeover was getting appointed. That was a great moment for me personally.”
When going on to describe his most important result, he added: “The game against Leicester always sticks in my head. That Bruno header. At that stage, we were very much in a relegation struggle and that just felt like a moment when we knew we were staying up.
“And it was at home, we scored in the last minute and there’s no better way than winning when you’re in those final few moments. It just felt like a turning point for us and that game always sticks in my head.”
Newcastle faced Leicester in April 2021 after a hard fought 1-0 victory against Wolves, which had come as a huge result after a difficult three match losing streak.
Ademola Lookman opened the scoring for the visitors, who at the time were competing for European qualification. Bruno Guimaraes netted an equaliser in the 30th minute at the second time of asking if his initial shot was rebounded by Kasper Schmeichel.
The Magpies were forced to absorb a great deal of pressure but won the game with a dramatic counter attack in the final moments which ended with Joe Willock setting up Guimaraes for a dramatic 95th minute diving header winner. Newcastle won four of their final six games to clinch 11th spot that season in a dramatic turnaround, which laid the foundations for a fourth place finish the following season.
Eddie Howe’s team will hope to return to Europe’s elite competition next season and are seeking an away win against Everton in this weekend’s key Premier League clash.
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