Ciaran Kelly
BBC Sport reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Even Jose Mourinho could not help but throw an arm around Anthony Gordon at full-time.

The Benfica manager had just watched the forward put in a man-of-the-match display in Newcastle's 3-0 win against his side at St James' Park.

The Champions League is a stage Gordon clearly relishes - and he is not the only one.

Only the bottom three have scored fewer goals in the Premier League this season than Newcastle, who have seven.

Yet it has been a very different story in Europe.

Newcastle have already netted eight goals in just three games in the Champions League.

This was a night where Eddie Howe's side had 19 efforts, 10 shots on target and 38 touches in the opposition box.

A potentially awkward opponent ended up being swept aside - but Howe stressed there is "much more to come".

"We're seeing the early shoots of the new team and it's exciting what we can be," he said. "But a lot of hard work ahead."

Read the full story.

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Newcastle's Nick Pope became the second English goalkeeper to assist a Champions League goal after Fraser Foster for Celtic against Barcelona in November 2012.

I think you might need to refresh your page, David...

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Former Spurs and Crystal Palace winger Andros Townsend on Anthony Gordon, who scored in Newcastle's 3-0 win over Benfica: "When I first joined Everton, he was a young lad, and you could see he had quality. He had immense pace, but he didn't work hard enough. In a modern-day winger you need to be the first line of press, and he wasn't doing that.

"Then it sort of clicked for him. He started working hard, he started working on getting in the team. He started getting joy. The fans loved him. But even still, by the time Newcastle bought him for £50m, Everton fans were thinking, right, we don't want him to go, but I think we've got the better end of the deal with £50m.

"But since then, he's just put it all together. He's got the quality, he's got the consistency, the pace out of possession.

"For me, he's one of the best in the Premier League in his position, and it's all just come together for him. At the age of 24 he has absolutely everything and the world is oyster now for club and for for country, going into the summer's World Cup."

Newcastle forward Harvey Barnes, who scored twice last night, told TNT Sport: "Last season we weren't in Europe and that hurt the players - this is what we want to be in, there is nothing better.

"A few times when we have gone ahead in games we have not quite gone for that second or third goal and it has cost us. This is when we are at our best - playing attacking football with the crowd behind us. The third goal killed the game off which was important."

Ciaran Kelly
BBC Sport reporter

Image source, Getty Images

Nick Woltemade has made an impressive start to his Newcastle career, but the German has had to shoulder the goalscoring burden very quickly since his £69m move from Stuttgart.

Woltemade has scored four of Newcastle's past five goals in the Premier League and they needed others to step up.

In this competition, both Gordon and Barnes have done so.

After scoring his first ever Champions League goal in the 2-1 defeat against Barcelona, which ended up proving a mere consolation, Gordon followed that up with a couple of penalties in the 4-0 rout of Union Saint-Gilloise.

But this was his most crucial contribution yet.

St James' was tense, nervy even, after Newcastle escaped a couple of scares following Lukebakio's efforts.

But the momentum of the game and, indeed, the atmosphere changed once Gordon opened the scoring.

And what about Barnes?

Like Gordon, he has yet to find the back of the net in the Premier League this season but has also come alive in Europe, scoring three goals in three appearances.

Woltemade may have failed to find the back of the net, but it did not matter because his team-mates stepped up.

Image source, Getty Images

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe told TNT Sports on the 3-0 win over Benfica: "I am really pleased. Benfica are a very good team so we had to show our quality. I thought we were patient, we had chances and didn't score early but we kept at it.

"Once we scored our second goal, you saw the real us and what we can be. I thought we were excellent afterwards."

And on if this is the best squad he has assembled at the club: "We have strength, but it is on paper - you have to go and prove it. The squad last season won a trophy, we have to go to work and prove the strength of the squad warrants the feeling I have.

"We are full of good players, we haven't quite clicked into gear yet but hopefully this is the start of what we can be."

On Nick Pope's assist: "I can't take credit for that! We are working on a few things with Nick with his distribution and his throwing is a big strength of his. He is a very good goalkeeper and he showed that today."

Right then, apparently it wasn't just Arsenal playing last night...?

Turns out there was a game in the North East as well...

The 43 goals scored on Tuesday in the Champions League were scored by players from 20 nations.

There were five goals from English players, with both Barcelona's Marcus Rashford and Newcastle's Harvey Barnes netting twice, while Anthony Gordon was also on the scoresheet for the Magpies.

Spanish players scored more, though, with Barcelona hat-trick hero Fermin Lopez accounting for half of the six goals from players from his nation.

Players from Algeria, Argentina, Ecuador, Georgia, Iceland, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey and the United States all scored one goal.

Of the 43 goals scored, English clubs contributed the highest amount on Tuesday with nine, but France - led solely by Paris St-Germain - followed closely behind with seven.

Only Union Saint-Gilloise (Belgium), Benfica (Portugal), Kairat (Kazakhstan) and Pafos (Cyprus) failed to score.

Image source, Getty Images

There were 43 goals scored, five red cards handed out and six penalties awarded - of which five were converted.

It was a relentless evening of Champions League football on Tuesday.

Last season's winners Paris St-Germain hit seven past Leverkusen, with both teams having a player sent off and the German side's Alejandro Grimaldo missing a spot-kick.

While PSV Eindhoven fought back from a goal down before running riot in a 6-2 win against Italian champions Napoli.

Only twice before have there been more goals scored on a single Champions League night than in Tuesday's goalfest.

Last season, in the final round of the league phase, there were a record 64 goals.

However, that was when all 18 games were played at the same time, so there was a lower goals-per-game average (3.55).

Back on 1 October 1997 there were 44 goals scored in 12 games. Paul Scholes and Zinedine Zidane were among the names on the scoresheet as Manchester United beat Juventus 3-2 at Old Trafford that evening.

All in good time, David. Arsenal were also very good last night so we needed to talk about that as well. As it goes, we're moving on now.

But as you have been so polite and said please, I will let you know that we'll be giving both Newcastle and Manchester City their moments in the spotlight shortly.

First, though, let's appreciate a wild night in the Champions League as a whole...