Bruno Guimaraes: Newcastle United midfielder reflects on the club’s recent form amid an injury crisis.
Despite back-to-back defeats and an injury crisis, Newcastle United manager Bruno Guimaraes believes his team can still go to the Champions League last-16.
After two games, Newcastle led Group F in the Champions League. However, following two defeats against Borussia Dortmund, the Magpies have dropped to the bottom of the table and must avoid defeat in their next Champions League match against Paris Saint-Germain in order to keep their hopes of progressing alive.
Newcastle hosts AC Milan in their last group stage match at St James’ Park after PSG.
Newcastle presently has 12 players out with injury, in addition to Sandro Tonali’s 10-month suspension for violating Italian betting regulations.
When asked to explain Newcastle’s recent on-field troubles, Guimaraes cited the club’s persistent injury crisis.
“We are missing very important players like Tonali, [Sven] Botman, and [Alexander] Isak,” Guimaraes explained to MilanNews.It.
When asked about Tonali’s suspension, the Brazilian said, “I can’t say it hasn’t affected us.” But I’d rather not remark on this because it’s his business. We need to fight for this shirt again and win.”
Guimaraes is now on international duty with Brazil and will return from suspension after the break when Newcastle hosts Chelsea in the Premier League before traveling to Paris.
The 26-year-old’s most recent match for Newcastle was a 2-0 loss at Dortmund last week, a game in which he believed the team “played badly.”
“With Borussia Dortmund things didn’t work in the first leg and the second leg,” he said. “We knew they had a good team, but we didn’t play well.”
“That defeat is a big disappointment for us; we weren’t at full strength, but that’s no excuse.” We’re disappointed, but we still have two games left against PSG and Milan.
“We have to win both games in order to advance.” We believe in qualification.”
Newcastle come into their final group-stage matches knowing that two victories will ensure qualification, but four points will leave them dependent on the results of the other teams in the group. Anything less than four points will see The Magpies eliminated.
Newcastle would move to the preliminary knockout phase for the Europa League last-16 if they finished third in their group.
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