Newcastle United Faces Record-Breaking Journey in Champions League Play-Off
Newcastle United is embarking on the longest ever Champions League journey undertaken by an English club, a 5,061-mile round trip to face Azerbaijani side Qarabag in a play-off match tonight, Wednesday, February 18, 2026. The match, held at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium in Baku, comes after Newcastle finished 12th in the league phase following a 1-1 draw with Paris Saint-Germain.
The distance narrowly surpasses Chelsea’s previous longest trips to face Qarabag, including a 2-2 draw in the current season’s league phase. Chelsea’s 2017-18 match against Qarabag, played at the Baku Olympic Stadium, was slightly longer due to the stadium’s location further east within the city.
This lengthy journey is part of a broader trend in the expanded 2025-26 Champions League, which features 36 teams and 144 matches – an increase from the previous format of eight groups of four. Clubs have collectively travelled around 313,131 miles during the league phase, exceeding the total distance covered in any previous edition of the competition.
The expanded format isn’t the sole driver of increased travel. This season has already seen clubs log 100,000 more miles than last year, highlighted by Kazakhstan’s Kairat making an 8,594-mile round trip to face Sporting CP in Lisbon for their opening league phase match. Kairat, the easternmost club ever to compete in the Champions League, and teams like Bodo/Glimt from Norway (based inside the Arctic Circle) and Pafos from Cyprus, represent the geographical spread of the competition.
The increased distances raise questions about the competition’s carbon footprint. While the impact of travel fatigue on performance is debated, analysis of Premier League teams’ results suggests a pattern. English clubs have historically struggled in away matches against Eastern European opposition, winning only 26 percent of return fixtures in Ukraine, for example.
Newcastle, accustomed to long domestic journeys as the northernmost Premier League club, has not fared well on the road this season, winning only three of their 13 away league matches. They still face significant travel for remaining Premier League fixtures, more than any other club in the division.
Despite the arduous journey, Newcastle is favored to win against Qarabag. Qarabag is the first club from Azerbaijan to reach the Champions League knockout phase, but were soundly defeated 6-0 by Liverpool at Anfield in their final league-phase fixture.
