Gordon bags a four-goal haul as Newcastle hit six past Qarabag in Champions League playoff

Newcastle United smashed Qarabag FK 6-1 in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League playoff clash at the Tofiq Bahramov Republican Stadium on Wednesday evening.

Anthony Gordon broke the deadlock three minutes into the game after he was slipped through on goal by Dan Burn, and the winger found the bottom corner.

Five minutes later, Malick Thiaw doubled the visitors’ lead after he got onto Kieran Trippier’s corner at the back post, and he found the bottom corner with a header.

Minutes later, Gordon and Barnes squandered opportunities to increase the deficit as the Magpies searched for a third.

In the 31st minute, Newcastle were awarded a penalty after a VAR review when Matheus Silva appeared to have handed the ball in the area. Gordon stepped up for the spot kick, and he converted beyond Mateusz Kochalski.

Two minutes later, Gordon completed his hat-trick when Kevin Medina failed to deal with a looping ball, and the Englishman latched onto it to round the goalkeeper and slot home into an empty net.

On the stroke of halftime, the Magpies were awarded another spot-kick after Kochalski took Gordon out in the area. The Englishman converted his second penalty of the evening, netting his 14th of the competition.

In the 54th minute, the hosts pulled one back with their first attempt on target as Elvin Cafarquliyev drilled in a low shot beyond Nick Pope from a well-worked short corner.

Moments later, Qarabag had another attempt on goal as Pedro Bicalho fired a deflected effort at goal, but it went just wide.

In the 72nd minute, Jacob Murphy completed the scoring as his curling effort took a wicked deflection off Cafarguliyev and nestled into the net for Newcastle’s sixth.