A 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain on matchday eight last month meant Eddie Howe’s side finished 12th at the league stage, below the top eight who went straight to the round of 16. They now face a two-legged play-off against Azerbaijani side Qarabag to reach the knockout stage, with the game taking place tonight (Wednesday).
It adds two more fixtures to an already crowded calendar – while their trip to the Azerbaijan capital Baku, where Qarabag play their games, is the longest ever undertaken by an English club in the competition.
The 5,061-mile (8,100-kilometre) round-trip from Newcastle is a much shorter distance than Chelsea’s previous two trips to face Qarabag, including a 2-2 draw in the league stage this season.
Of Chelsea’s visits, their match in the 2017–18 season was a slightly longer journey of the two, as it was played at Azerbaijan’s national ground, the Baku Olympic Stadium, which is further east in the city than this season’s venue, the Tofik Bahramov Republican Stadium.
Newcastle’s league-stage schedule was unforgiving in terms of geography, with only Arsenal traveling fewer miles in the eight matches. But the trip means they will surpass the other five Premier League teams competing in this season’s tournament in terms of distance covered.
Long-haul flights have been a recurring theme in the 2025-26 Champions League. By the end of the league stage, the clubs had traveled approximately 313,131 miles – more than the total distance covered in any previous edition of the competition.
Part of this is a natural result of the expanded format introduced last season. The league stage now has 36 teams and 144 matches, more than the full set of 125 games played in 2023–24, the final campaign under the old structure which consisted of eight groups of four.
But it’s not just this expansion that has increased the competition’s air miles.
This season the clubs have already traveled 100,000 miles more than last year, a figure that includes the longest journey in the competition’s history: Kazakhstan’s Kairat traveled 8,594 miles to face Sporting CP in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon for their opening match of the league stage.
Carrot is the easternmost team ever to compete in the Champions League, in a tournament that has spanned the length and breadth of the continent. It is no surprise, then, that their trip to Lisbon is the longest on record, with Portugal being the westernmost country to play in the Champions League group stage/league stage.
Meanwhile, Norwegian side Bodø/Glimt – who face Serie A side Inter in the play-offs – are the northernmost club in the competition, located inside the Arctic Circle. Aside from previous participants Israel, Cypriot side Paphos is the southernmost team to qualify in the tournament’s history.
Reaching the borders of Europe (and in some cases even beyond – only a small western part of Kazakhstan is considered part of the continent, the rest in Asia) raises legitimate questions about the carbon footprint of the competition, but is travel fatigue reflected on the pitch?
Türkiye provides an interesting case study.
Manchester United was the first English club to travel there for a Champions League match, facing Galatasaray in a second-round match in 1993. That game is vividly remembered for its brutal atmosphere, which was made infamous by a banner welcoming United players at Istanbul’s Atatürk Airport that read: ‘Welcome to Hell’.
United drew 0–0 on the night, 3–3 on aggregate, and were eliminated on away goals, beginning a mediocre run of results for English sides in Turkey. In 20 Champions League matches there, Premier League clubs have recorded seven wins, six draws and seven losses.
Part of that record is undoubtedly down to the intimidating atmosphere generated by home supporters and being statistically difficult to achieve regardless of venue. But, compared to their results at home against clubs from the same countries, English teams have fared much worse in away matches against Eastern European opponents.
The graphic below shows the Premier League win rates in the Champions League, split between home and away fixtures against clubs across Europe. The biggest swings come against Ukrainian teams.
No Ukrainian team has ever won in 20 Champions League trips to England (they have drawn three), and English clubs have won only 26 percent of return fixtures there.
A similar pattern exists against the Greek opposition. Arsenal’s 3–2 defeat to Olympiacos in the 2015–16 group stage remains the only home defeat by an English team to a Greek team in the Champions League, but after flying three to four hours from England to that part of south-eastern Europe the balance changes.
In contrast, Swiss clubs perhaps take the country’s reputation for neutrality in the Champions League a little too literally. Switzerland is the only country (with a minimum of 10 home and away games) where Premier League teams have a higher win rate away from home.
If any club is adept at long-distance days, it’s Newcastle – at least domestically. Their St James’ Park home is the Premier League’s northernmost stadium, and, along with north-east rivals Sunderland, they regularly face the longest away trips in the division.
Not that familiarity has equipped them for the difficulties of such a journey. They have won only three of their 13 away league matches this season. Following their date in Baku, Newcastle still have to travel almost 3,000 miles for their remaining Premier League fixtures this season, more than any other club.
As for tonight’s game, any fatigue felt by Newcastle is unlikely to bridge the gap in quality between the two sides. In their final league-stage match, Qarabag were defeated 6–0 by Liverpool at Anfield.
Their journey to Baku may have been long and tumultuous, but the game should go smoothly for Howe and company.
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