Newcastle 3-2 Qarabag FK

&c

Newcastle sealed their place in the last 16 of the Champions League with a frankly weird zero jeopardy game against Qarabag at St James' Park on Tuesday night.

Already almost certainly assured of progression after the 6-1 win in the away leg, a heavily rotated but still strong team (Alex Murphy and Will Osula the only things resembling prospects in the starting XI) stormed into a two goal lead even quicker in the return fixture.

Following a Tonali goal that owed everything to his perseverence, and a lovely, thumping Joelinton volley into the roof of the net from a delightful Harvey Barnes cross, Newcastle were leading by an unprecedented 8-1 aggregate scoreline after just six minutes.

At that point, it looked like no records were off the table - double figures on the night, biggest Champions League win in history, a double hat trick for any particularly hungry forward - but at this point we understandably decided the job was done and eased off.

The early goals were no doubt Eddie Howe's dream scenario, and if taking our foot off the gas was in the script then presumably a Qarabag goal in the 50th minute (no changes at half time) wasn't.

Botman soon restored the two goal lead on the night, but then Qarabag got the customary soft handball penalty, which Ramsdale did well to keep out but was put in on the rebound.

It's fair to say the second half performance was pretty damn poor, and also that it was disappointing that the kids barely got a look in (a five minute debut for Shahar, nothing for Neave), and borderline alarming seeing Gordon and Hall come on midway through the second half.

If we take a step back, however, we've just scored nine goals in a Champions League knockout round, setting up a last-16 game with either Chelsea or Barcelona.

I can't help but wonder, if we're not going to blood some youngsters now, when on earth are we - but you can't exactly argue with results like this.