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Newcastle secured a third successive Champions League win as Dan Burn’s thunderous header inspired a cathartic 2-0 victory against Athletic Bilbao on Wednesday.

Burn struck in eye-catching style in the first half at St James’ Park and Joelinton netted after the interval to wrap up Newcastle’s fifth successive home win in all competitions.

Newcastle’s dismal 3-1 defeat at lowly West Ham on Sunday left the Magpies languishing in 13th place in the Premier League and prompted a painful bout of soul-searching on Tyneside.

But although they have struggled domestically, Eddie Howe’s side have three wins from four games in the Champions League this season, with their only loss coming in the opening match against Barcelona.

Ahead of trips to Marseille and Bayer Leverkusen in their next two league phase fixtures, sixth-placed Newcastle are firmly in the hunt to secure the top-eight place that guarantees automatic qualification for the last 16.

Howe will hope Newcastle’s European success serves as a springboard for a winning run in the Premier League, starting at Brentford on Sunday.

Mired in mid-table in La Liga after losing to Basque rivals Real Sociedad last weekend, injury-hit Bilbao were toothless without brothers Inaki and Nico Williams.

Unai Gomez wasted an early chance to lift the visitors when he headed Alex Berenguer’s corner straight at Nick Pope and Newcastle made the most of that escape.

Newcastle’s lacklustre loss at West Ham had sparked accusations that Howe’s team are developing a habit of playing down to the level of their opponents.

READ ALSO: [UCL] Flawless Arsenal Dispatch Slavia Prague, Extend Clean Sheet Streak To Eight Games

Burn makes his point 

2023 ➡️ 2025

Big Dan Burn on the scoresheet again in the Champions League pic.twitter.com/QVCSXSK0BL

Burn added to that perception this week when he said “everybody knows we will turn up” against Bilbao.

The England centre-back was true to his word as he put Newcastle ahead in the 11th minute.

Kieran Trippier’s free-kick picked out Burn in space in the penalty area and he punished Bilbao’s slack marking with a superb header that curled into the far corner from 10 yards.

Even legendary Newcastle striker Alan Shearer, watching with a broad grin in the stands, would have been proud of such a sublime finish.

Bilbao briefly mounted a determined response to that blow and twice came close to drawing level as sloppy Newcastle conceded possession too easily.

Gomez raced clear of the flat-footed Newcastle defence and fired against the near post.

With Newcastle on the ropes, Adama Boiro lashed a ferocious strike off the woodwork from 18 yards.

Howe’s men squandered a chance to increase their lead when Nick Woltemade climbed highest for a header that whistled wide from Harvey Barnes’ cross.

Newcastle suffered a blow when England winger Anthony Gordon limped off with a recurrence of a hip injury late in the first half.

But they ignored that setback to double their advantage in the 49th minute.

Barnes cleverly worked space on the left side of the Bilbao area and lofted a cross into the six-yard box, where Joelinton thumped his header past Unai Simon for his first goal in nine games.

Nico Serrano’s stunning long-range drive nearly caught out Pope, but the Newcastle keeper recovered to preserve a comfortable clean-sheet.

Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen has scored his first Champions League hat-trick, bagging three goals as Galatasaray trounced Dutch outfit Ajax 3-0 on Wednesday night.

The Super Eagle opened the scoresheet in the 59th minute of the game with a header.

Osimhen converted from the spot in the 66th minute and completed the hat-trick 12 minutes later after another penalty.

Three straight wins in the #UCL ✅#AJAXGALA pic.twitter.com/0zzSgNQ5Fs

READ ALSO: [UCL] Flawless Arsenal Dispatch Slavia Prague, Extend Clean Sheet Streak To Eight Games

In the last matchday in the Champions League, the Nigerian scored a brace as Galatasaray, Turkish champions, beat Bodo/Glimt 3-1.

This duo #UCL pic.twitter.com/PSgqAcmkCb

With three goals on Wednesday, the 26-year-old has now scored 12 goals in his last eight matches for Galatasaray in Europe!

Victor Osimhen becomes the first Galatasaray player ever to score a brace in back-to-back Champions League matches #UCL pic.twitter.com/ViKu8pJkak

Nigerian forward Victor Osimhen has scored his first Champions League hat-trick, bagging three goals as Galatasaray trounced Dutch outfit Ajax 3-0 on Wednesday night.

The Super Eagle opened the scoresheet in the 59th minute of the game with a header.

Osimhen converted from the spot in the 66th minute and completed the hat-trick 12 minutes later after another penalty.

Three straight wins in the #UCL ✅#AJAXGALA pic.twitter.com/0zzSgNQ5Fs

READ ALSO: [UCL] Flawless Arsenal Dispatch Slavia Prague, Extend Clean Sheet Streak To Eight Games

In the last matchday in the Champions League, the Nigerian scored a brace as Galatasaray, Turkish champions, beat Bodo/Glimt 3-1.

This duo #UCL pic.twitter.com/PSgqAcmkCb

With three goals on Wednesday, the 26-year-old has now scored 12 goals in his last eight matches for Galatasaray in Europe!

Victor Osimhen becomes the first Galatasaray player ever to score a brace in back-to-back Champions League matches #UCL pic.twitter.com/ViKu8pJkak

Amanda Anisimova pulled off a stellar comeback on Wednesday to get the better of Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 and book her spot in the last four of the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Making her tournament debut this week, the fourth-seeded Anisimova secured the runner-up spot in the Serena Williams Group behind Elena Rybakina.

Rybakina completed round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 mark, thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 success against Russian alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova earlier in the day.

Anisimova improved her three-set record this season to an impressive 15-3 by posting her 10th top-10 win of the year.

“It’s so funny, my mom keeps telling me: ‘You know you’ve won like so many three-set matches this year? You’re so strong’. I was actually thinking about that. Against Iga today it was so, so tough, but honestly, I enjoyed it,” said Anisimova, who reached the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open this year.

“I’m so excited (to be in the semi-finals), this is surreal, especially for my first time playing here.”

Swiatek and Anisimova split their two previous meetings, with the former triumphing in the Wimbledon final and the latter avenging that loss in the US Open quarter-finals.

On Wednesday at King Saud University Indoor Arena, the Pole saved all four break points she faced before she clinched the tiebreak to bag the opening set in 65 minutes.

The quality was incredibly high throughout and little separated the pair until Anisimova finally converted a break point in game 10 of the second set to draw level and force a decider.

The American made the first move in the final set, breaking in the fourth game on a Swiatek double-fault. Another break sealed the deal for Anisimova over the six-time Grand Slam champion in two hours and 36 minutes.

This is the first time in Swiatek’s entire career that she has suffered two successive losses after winning the opening set.

The 24-year-old Pole was at a loss for words when trying to explain the reasons behind her defeat.

“I felt good mentally, physically, and tennis-wise also it was nice, looking at the conditions and everything; so, I don’t really get why I couldn’t go out of the group,” said a disappointed Swiatek.

“Maybe I won too much in the last years and this is karma. It’s really hard for me to say. It feels weird. It’s not like I’m expecting (to win), but from my experiences, if I put so much intensity and grit and I cared that much, it usually paid off. So we’ll see if I keep working if it’s going to pay off or not.”

READ ALSO: Lionel Messi Named In MLS Best XI Squad

 In-form Rybakina

In a rematch of the Ningbo final from three weeks ago, won by Rybakina, the Kazakh fired eight aces and saved five of six break points en route to a 73-minute victory.

The world number six extended her current winning streak to nine consecutive matches –- a run than began in Ningbo on October 16 and has continued through Tokyo, from which she withdrew at the semi-final stage, and now Riyadh.

“Ekaterina is always a tough opponent and has a big serve. I’m happy I was able to win in straight sets. Each win gives you confidence and I’m pretty happy that for now my last matches have been great,” said Rybakina, who was playing with taping on her shoulder.

Rybakina entered the match with Alexandrova having already secured her place in the semi-finals as the winner of the group.

Alexandrova was brought in as a replacement for American Madison Keys, who withdrew ahead of the match due to a viral illness.

The Australian Open champion suffered two defeats in round-robin play this week in Riyadh, to Swiatek and Anisimova, and had no chance of advancing to the knockout stage.

Thursday will see the conclusion of the Stefanie Graf Group, with Belarusian top seed Sabalenka taking on defending champion Gauff of the USA, and America’s Pegula scheduled to play Jasmine Paolini, although the Italian has also reported feeling unwell.

Amanda Anisimova pulled off a stellar comeback on Wednesday to get the better of Iga Swiatek 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-2 and book her spot in the last four of the WTA Finals in Riyadh.

Making her tournament debut this week, the fourth-seeded Anisimova secured the runner-up spot in the Serena Williams Group behind Elena Rybakina.

Rybakina completed round-robin play with a perfect 3-0 mark, thanks to a 6-4, 6-4 success against Russian alternate Ekaterina Alexandrova earlier in the day.

Anisimova improved her three-set record this season to an impressive 15-3 by posting her 10th top-10 win of the year.

“It’s so funny, my mom keeps telling me: ‘You know you’ve won like so many three-set matches this year? You’re so strong’. I was actually thinking about that. Against Iga today it was so, so tough, but honestly, I enjoyed it,” said Anisimova, who reached the finals at Wimbledon and the US Open this year.

“I’m so excited (to be in the semi-finals), this is surreal, especially for my first time playing here.”

Swiatek and Anisimova split their two previous meetings, with the former triumphing in the Wimbledon final and the latter avenging that loss in the US Open quarter-finals.

On Wednesday at King Saud University Indoor Arena, the Pole saved all four break points she faced before she clinched the tiebreak to bag the opening set in 65 minutes.

The quality was incredibly high throughout and little separated the pair until Anisimova finally converted a break point in game 10 of the second set to draw level and force a decider.

The American made the first move in the final set, breaking in the fourth game on a Swiatek double-fault. Another break sealed the deal for Anisimova over the six-time Grand Slam champion in two hours and 36 minutes.

This is the first time in Swiatek’s entire career that she has suffered two successive losses after winning the opening set.

The 24-year-old Pole was at a loss for words when trying to explain the reasons behind her defeat.

“I felt good mentally, physically, and tennis-wise also it was nice, looking at the conditions and everything; so, I don’t really get why I couldn’t go out of the group,” said a disappointed Swiatek.

“Maybe I won too much in the last years and this is karma. It’s really hard for me to say. It feels weird. It’s not like I’m expecting (to win), but from my experiences, if I put so much intensity and grit and I cared that much, it usually paid off. So we’ll see if I keep working if it’s going to pay off or not.”

READ ALSO: Lionel Messi Named In MLS Best XI Squad

 In-form Rybakina

In a rematch of the Ningbo final from three weeks ago, won by Rybakina, the Kazakh fired eight aces and saved five of six break points en route to a 73-minute victory.

The world number six extended her current winning streak to nine consecutive matches –- a run than began in Ningbo on October 16 and has continued through Tokyo, from which she withdrew at the semi-final stage, and now Riyadh.

“Ekaterina is always a tough opponent and has a big serve. I’m happy I was able to win in straight sets. Each win gives you confidence and I’m pretty happy that for now my last matches have been great,” said Rybakina, who was playing with taping on her shoulder.

Rybakina entered the match with Alexandrova having already secured her place in the semi-finals as the winner of the group.

Alexandrova was brought in as a replacement for American Madison Keys, who withdrew ahead of the match due to a viral illness.

The Australian Open champion suffered two defeats in round-robin play this week in Riyadh, to Swiatek and Anisimova, and had no chance of advancing to the knockout stage.

Thursday will see the conclusion of the Stefanie Graf Group, with Belarusian top seed Sabalenka taking on defending champion Gauff of the USA, and America’s Pegula scheduled to play Jasmine Paolini, although the Italian has also reported feeling unwell.

The league’s Best XI squad on Wednesday included six first-time honorees, including Lionel Messi, who has the highest goal total this season in MLS.

Messi, who won the 2022 World Cup with eight consecutive Ballon d’Or awards, led MLS with 19 assists and scored a league-high 29 goals for Inter Miami, making him only the second player to top goals and assists in the same season.

Denis Bouanga of Los Angeles FC and Anders Dreyer of San Diego FC both had forwards in the elite lineup.

Read more about [UCL] Flawless Arsenal Dispatch Slavia Prague, Extend Clean Sheet Streak To Eight Games.

Dayne St. Clair of Minnesota United, along with Alex Freeman of Orlando, Jakob Glesnes of Norway, and Kai Wagner of Germany, won the Best XI goalkeeper award.

Sebastian Berhalter of Vancouver, Evander of Brazil from Cincinnati, and Cristian Roldan of Seattle made the midfielders.

Canadian St. Clair won the MLS Goalkeeper of the Year award, while Dreyer won the MLS Newcomer of the Year and Blackmon won the MLS Defender of the Year.

St. Clair, &nbsp, Blackmon, Freeman, Roldan, Berhalter, and Dreyer all received their first Best XI nods.