Newcastle United’s Champions League ranking compared to their opponents as Toon get tough draw

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Newcastle United have discovered the eight teams they will be playing against in this season’s Champions League.

The Champions League draw is now complete, with Eddie Howe’s side coming out of pot four because of their coefficient.

There is no group of death for Newcastle United like there was in 2023/24, with the Champions League format changing to one 36-team league.

However, the Magpies are still braced for some incredibly difficult games. They will take on holders Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Bayer Leverkusen, Benfica, Marseille, PSV Eindhoven, Athletic Club and Union Saint-Gilloise.

Newcastle United’s Champions League coefficient explained

Newcastle were placed in pot four because of their UEFA coefficient. Their score is 23.039, which is the third-lowest in the entire Champions League this season. Only Pafos and Kairat have a smaller coefficient.

The score the Magpies have been given is 20% of English clubs’ overall coefficient, as their actual score is less than that figure.

The coefficient is based on a club’s performance in UEFA competition over the past five years. That is why Newcastle’s is so small, as they have only spent one season in Europe over the past five years. That was their last Champions League adventure, where they picked up five points to finish bottom of their group.

Those performances gave Newcastle a coefficient score of just eight.

A strong showing this year will increase that figure, and could result in the Magpies being in a higher pot in the future. However, it does not matter too much nowadays given the new Champions League format.

How Newcastle United compare to their Champions League opponents

Based on the coefficients, the most difficult team Newcastle United will face is PSG. They won the 2025 Champions League, beating Bayern Munich in the final.

That game will be away from home, meaning a return to the Parc des Princes where Newcastle so nearly won during their last Champions League campaign. However, they were denied victory by a controversial penalty decision in stoppage time.

The biggest club that Newcastle will welcome to St James’ Park is Barcelona. It will be a seismic game on Tyneside, with one of the Magpies’ most famous ever nights coming against Barca in the Champions League in 1997. Tino Asprilla netted a hat-trick that night in a 3-2 win.

The first team from pot two that Newcastle were drawn against was Bayer Leverkusen, as they prepare to head to Germany.

That will be an interesting game given all of the changes at Leverkusen over the summer. They have lost key players like Florian Wirtz and Jeremie Frimpong, while Erik ten Hag is now the manager. That means a renewal of the Howe vs Ten Hag rivalry.

Newcastle’s home game against a pot two side will see them take on Benfica, which will be another very challenging fixture. They met in the Europa League quarter-finals in 2013, with the Portuguese club knocking out Alan Pardew’s side.

Howe’s side will have two trips to France in the 2025/26 Champions League, as they face Marseille away from pot three. That should be some night, as the Marseille fans produce an incredible atmosphere inside the Orange Velodrome.

Based on UEFA’s coefficients, Newcastle have the hardest home game possible against a pot three side. They take on PSV Eindhoven, which will be an emotional occasion given Sir Bobby Robson’s ties to both clubs.

To round out Newcastle’s incredibly difficult Champions League draw, they face La Liga outfit Athletic Club at home and Belgian side Union Saint-Gilloise away from pot four. That means that every club Newcastle will face has a better UEFA coefficient than them.