oldtype

Have to say this is a much more wide open game than I thought it would be.

Phew

Fully expecting Mike Ashley and Steve Bruce to show up at the center circle at half time and announce that I've been in a coma for the past two years and that this was all a dream.

Murphy with his "so happy to be here" face in the line-up

Newcastle are +160 at sportsbook, Milan +155. At those odds,can't help but think that Milan is the more rational bet here can't decide whether to bet with my head or my heart.

Got a call scheduled today for halftime that’s definitely going to go a fucking hour.

A late press conference! Dear me. The punishment is death by firing squad.

In this day and age what is Howe even worried that they're going to find out. It's no big secret how we're going to line up. At absolute worst the bibs are giving up info on a couple marginal team selections.

In Vegas for business right now so I guess I'll be watching this in the sportsbook at a casino. Not the best atmosphere but maybe I can drink enough over breakfast to make it work.

Not much in the way of competition. Carroll, Cisse, and Ba were all great at their peak but none of them stayed great/stayed with us for particularly long. I’m also too young to remember Ferdinand or Cole. But neither were productive with us for as long as Wilson has been.

Lovely finish. Shola-esque.

We’re going to miss this aren’t we

Shit goal disallowed by shit call more or less perfectly encapsulates this game

Not just an Eddie Howe problem but Premier League managers are far too conservative with subs in the five-sub era. You have the ability to swap out half your outfield players for fresh legs. You should use it more aggressively.

It’s kind of amazing that Burn at left back has lasted as long as it has really.

As nothing of a half as there’s ever been.

In case anyone was wondering, this is going about as well as could have been expected.

Knew Korea were playing Saudi this week, did not realize until just now that it was going to be at SJP. Going to be surreal.

Trying to get to Paris with the family for the away tie, work permitting. It's Paris, so wife wasn't that hard to convince. I'm assuming home tickets won't be too hard to pick up so will probably just get those and dress in neutral colors. Pretend to be a clueless tourist until we score.

Really don't want us to be the sort of fanbase that's impatiently up in arms to sell and move on whenever a player has a drop in form. That's exactly the typical sort of Man City fan behavior that we used to look down on.

I will never get over the fact that Shola Ameobi has scored goals (plural) in the Champions League.

Yeah, same. Was certainly hoping to experience us getting utterly torn apart by Messi at least once in my lifetime.

Newcastle playing in Paris! Milan! And uh... Dortmund. If that doesn't excite you why bother with European football at all. We're not going to win this this year, so let's have some fun.

I think I might have drawn the most boring group possible No real elite teams. Porto would be fun I guess. Napoli okay. Belgrade meh. Would fancy us to advance, at least.

Less than three points would probably send this forum all the way back to the Ashley era. Just waiting for somebody to bump the relegationometer thread.