When the Qarabag manager, Gurban Gurbanov, declared before kick-off that Newcastle possess “a style of play that does not suit us”, there were suggestions that he was playing mind games. Long before half-time it was fully apparent that he had rather understated things.
Had this been a boxing match it would surely have been stopped by the 20th minute. Qarabag were utterly overwhelmed by the pace of their guests, and that of Anthony Gordon in particular. Gordon scored four times, boosting his tally in the Champions League this season to 10 goals.
It all ensured that the 1,998 Newcastle fans who arrived on the banks of the Caspian Sea on a series of indirect flights via, among other cities, Istanbul and Warsaw, saw their endurance rewarded by the most convincing of performances from Eddie Howe’s team.
“That’s as good as we’ve played in a long time,” the Newcastle manager said. “It’s a great day for us.”
Howe has faced multiple problems in recent weeks but his players found this flying visit to Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, and its Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium as restorative as a week’s spa break in the sun.
How Newcastle must wish more opponents attempted to play out from the back as ineptly as their Eurasian hosts. Not to mention surrender so supinely in the face of their aggressively physical, high-intensity press.
Qarabag have beaten Benfica, Eintracht Frankfurt and Copenhagen in the Champions League this season but they simply folded as Newcastle sprinted away with the first leg of this playoff for a place in the last 16.
The 2,529 miles Howe’s squad had travelled to Azerbaijan represented the longest away trip made by an English team in the Champions League. Not that they showed any sign of jet lag following their six‑hour flight from Tyneside.
The game had barely begun before Dan Burn unleashed his inner Beckenbauer and, having stepped elegantly out of defence, supplied Gordon with a beautifully weighted pass.
The England winger, deployed at centre-forward with Nick Woltemade behind him in the No 10 role, needed no invitation to lash home his seventh Champions League goal of the season.
Burn’s defensive partner, Malick Thiaw, swiftly scored the second. When Kieran Trippier’s clever corner routine bamboozled Qarabag, Thiaw headed beyond Mateusz Kochalski.
By now Gordon’s blistering acceleration was petrifying Gurbanov’s side but he relied on accuracy to score again from the penalty spot after Matteus Silva handled in the area. His hat-trick was completed when he dispossessed Kevin Medina before rounding Kochalski.
Then, after Kochalski brought him down in the area, Gordon scored another penalty that provoked a heated row with Trippier, who wanted Woltemade to take it.
Significantly, Gurbanov’s goalkeeper played well, proving largely responsible for keeping the score in single figures.
Nick Pope had been a spectator until the moment, early in the second half, when he was arguably beaten rather too easily by Elvin Cafarquliyev’s low, hard, and just onside shot. Newcastle’s defence momentarily lost concentration and, as Qarabag fans celebrated wildly, Howe looked briefly irked.
Gurbanov had switched to a back five and a deeper Qarabag looked considerably more resilient. Admittedly their cause was aided by a raft of visiting substitutions – including Gordon’s withdrawal – as visiting thoughts began turning to the Premier League engagement on Saturday night at Manchester City, where the absence of the injured Bruno Guimarães may be rather more keenly felt.
Back in Baku, Jacob Murphy scored Newcastle’s sixth after cutting in from the right and watching his curling left foot, long-range, shot deflect past Kochalski.
“The tie isn’t over,” Howe said. “But we are in a great position.”
