Newcastle dynamism shows a 'return to best style'

Lotto Park had started to empty.

But those hoarse Newcastle United fans standing in the away end did not want to go home after watching the visitors defeat Union Saint-Gilloise 4-0 in Brussels.

"This is the best trip I've ever been on," the travelling support repeatedly sang at full-time.

They had just seen their side record their biggest Champions League win thanks to two penalties from Anthony Gordon and goals from Nick Woltemade and substitute Harvey Barnes.

Such a prospect once felt unimaginable for Geordies when Newcastle were fighting relegation not so long ago.

But Eddie Howe's side have qualified for the Champions League in two of the past three seasons.

And this was a night where Howe's players showed they belonged at Europe's top table with an emphatic away win, the club's first in the competition since 2003.

"They should [believe] and there's no reason why we can't win games at this level home and away," Howe said. "We have got the players and the squad to do that.

"Maybe you have to do it to believe it yourself, but I'm already there. I know we can."

Preparation pays off

The tone was set long before kick-off.

Howe has rotated his team while fighting on multiple fronts in the opening weeks of the season.

But it was rather telling that the Newcastle head coach only made two changes for this game - and one was enforced after Tino Livramento suffered a knee injury.

The Premier League's joint-lowest goalscorers needed to catch fire.

"There has been a lack of good football in general," Gordon told TNT Sports. "We have defended really well, been organised, but have lacked that spark and creativity. We really wanted to put emphasis on getting that back tonight."

There was certainly no chance of Newcastle underestimating Union as the visitors looked to bounce back from the weekend's painful defeat against Arsenal.

The Belgian champions may be newcomers in this competition, but they beat PSV in their first ever Champions League game last month and had not lost any of their opening nine top-flight fixtures.

Such has been Union's progress in European competitions in recent years, they actually have a significantly higher coefficient than Newcastle.

It was hardly a surprise, then, that the visitors left no stone unturned before facing a side who had an extra day to recover and prepare.

As well as personally reviewing his opponent, as always, Howe familiarised his side with their new surroundings by training at Lotto Park on the eve of the game.

That did not go unnoticed by Union manager Sebastien Pocognoli.

"Maybe the opponent sometimes can be condescending, to look down on you," he said. "They didn't. They paid us full respect. They played a big match with their skills and qualities.

"They played top level, all the Newcastle players played top level, so it shows that they had great respect for us."

'We're a progressive football team'

Newcastle outscored their xG against Union

Union actually had as many shots on target (six) as Newcastle, but the visitors were ruthless.

Though Newcastle were coming up against a back five, they knew there would be space out wide for the rapid Anthony Elanga and Gordon – and so it proved.

Elanga, the player of the match, had a hand in both of Newcastle's opening goals.

It was Elanga who whipped a cross into the box in the build-up to Sandro Tonali's shot taking a deflection off Woltemade for Newcastle's first.

The winger then won the first-half penalty, which Gordon converted for the visitors' second.

As well as putting away another spot-kick for Newcastle's third goal, Gordon also won the ball back seconds before substitute Barnes finished a clinical breakaway goal late on.

No wonder Howe felt like his side "could score at any moment".

"We're a progressive football team," the Newcastle head coach said. "I don't want us to play negative football or sometimes play too much in our build-up phase. That doesn't bring out the best in us.

"We've got very dynamic players and I want us to get them the ball as early as possible. I want to attack, I want to score and I want people who come to watch us to feel there's a team there that's trying to make the game in a positive way. I thought we saw that today – it was a return to our best style."

Anthony Elanga joined Newcastle United from Nottingham Forest in the summer