The Magpies beat Azerbaijan champions Qarabag 3-2 (9-3 on aggregate) in the second leg of their play-off tie on Tuesday (24.02.26) and the coach is confident that his team will pose a tough test for either Chelsea or Barcelona in the last 16.

Howe said: "We want to go as far as we can and why not? I think we’re good enough to do it.

"That’s the great thing now in our season. There’s a positive feel that whoever we get in the next round, it will be an amazing tie for us.

"I believe that we can raise our game and compete with anybody. That’s what we’re going to have to do whoever we get, but I just think it’s a massive thing for us to give our season an extra boost to get through this knockout phase and then into the next one.

"That’s the mindset we have to have. We have to believe in ourselves. I think we’ve seen the best of ourselves this year when we’ve gone into cup games and one-off games where we’ve been able to really rise to whatever challenge we’ve had in front of us."

Progression was a formality for Newcastle as they held a 6-1 lead from last week's first leg but Howe was still thrilled to see the club progress to the last 16 for the first time in four attempts.

He said: "It’s a massive achievement for us to get to the last 16. I don’t care who you play at this stage, it’s a tough draw and we did the majority of the work in the away game. But we’ve come through really well.

"We were able to rotate our squad to a degree with mixed success. I don’t think it was a great performance, but I’m really pleased that we won."