Newcastle United vs Barcelona Prediction, Odds and Picks for Thursday, 09/18/25

Barcelona begin their Champions League campaign with a tough league phase trip to St. James’ Park to face a Newcastle team that now has some momentum after beating Wolves at the weekend. Eddie Howe’s side earned a vital 1-0 home victory with new signing Nick Woltemade opening his account with a fine back-post header. The German’s movement and link-up play could pose the Barcelona defense plenty of problems again on Thursday. Valencia asked next to no questions at all of Hansi Flick’s team in a landslide Barca home La Liga victory on Sunday, as the Catalan giants secured a huge 6-0 win.

It is incomprehensible to think that Howe will send his team out to be defensive as Champions League football returns to Tyneside. The Magpies always gave it a go at home during their ill-fated and injury-hit campaign 2 years ago when they beat Paris Saint-Germain 4-1 on a famous night. Howe’s team are not quite as gung-ho as they were in those days, but they are certainly capable of keeping a Barca team quiet that may be without Lamine Yamal. Yamal is suffering from pain in the pubic bone that flared up while on international duty, with Marcus Rashford likely to start in his place.

The best value in this game looks to be for Newcastle to avoid defeat. Barca were held to a 1-1 draw by Rayo Vallecano in their last road game and failed to beat PSG or Borussia Dortmund in their 2 most recent European road trips. They were already 4-0 up from the first leg, so the performance in Dortmund raised few eyebrows, but they were flat from the first whistle and could have been 2 goals down before Dortmund got their first. Another slow start could be a problem against a Newcastle side that is solid in defence and has wingers that track back to protect the full-backs.