Not only are Newcastle United are out of the Champions League, they did not even drop into the Europa League.
That was going to be the consolation prize for the Magpies on Wednesday night, with a draw enough to finish third in their Champions League group.
But Eddie Howe’s side are dreamers. Even after AC Milan equalised, Newcastle still would have gone into the Europa League, but they pushed for the winner that would have lifted them up to second.
It ended up being Newcastle’s undoing. Milan scored on the counter to take the lead, leaving the Magpies with nothing.
Our European adventure is over, and what a ride it has been. However, it is such a shame to be out. Even coming third and dropping into the Europa League would have been great, as it would have given us another trophy to fight for.
However, TNT Sports pundit Rio Ferdinand disagrees. Instead, he believes that Eddie Howe and the Newcastle players will be grateful that they are not going to be competing in the Europa League.
Rio Ferdinand makes bold Newcastle claim after Champions League exit
Ferdinand spoke on TNT Sports after the 2-1 defeat to AC Milan, and admitted that he thinks Newcastle will be secretly delighted to avoid the Europa League.
“Eddie Howe and the players can’t say this but I’m guaranteeing that they will be delighted not to go into the Europa League because the amount of injuries they have, Kieran Tripper just limped past us here,” he said.
“And a few are quite long term. So it makes it difficult to battle on many fronts when your squad is so thread bare. They have to get these players back fit and more and more games would make that more and more unlikely for those players to come back fit.”
Newcastle would have relished Europa League
I have to disagree with Ferdinand. While the dream was to advance in the Champions League, dropping into the Europa League would not have been a negative thing.
Yes, it would mean more games, but we are here to compete. We are here to challenge for honours.
Obviously the Europa League is nowhere near as glamorous as the Champions League, but there is a real snobbery towards the competition from a lot of onlookers.
Our injury problems are clear for all to see, but that does not mean that European football would have been viewed negatively. You never know when these opportunities are going to come round again, so there is no way Eddie Howe and his players would have been turning their nose up at UEFA’s secondary competition.
Instead, they are left with nothing. Rio Ferdinand might think missing out on the Europa League will be a blessing, but it certainly does not feel that way right now.
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