Newcastle United and their French revolution will be keen to earn a big advantage as they host Metalist Kharkiv in the first leg of the round of 32 of the Europa League.
Newcastle have finally found some form following the arrival of five French players in the January transfer window, with Moussa Sissoko particularly impressing.
Alan Pardew will be hoping the new faces can inject some quality and enthusiasm as the Magpies look to go on a run in Europe.
"Although we know we're still in a situation where we need to win Premier League games, it gives us a little bit of breathing space to attack this competition which we've always had in our mind that we could do that," Pardew said.
"We left it late to win two out of the last three but at least we got there in the end. It gives us a platform, and we've got a squad that's so much bigger. Even if we had some injuries now, we can cover them whereas before we didn't have that luxury. So we can enter the rest of this competition with a strong hand."
Pardew believes Metalist pose a big threat to his team, and the manager is not going to take anything for granted. "We're going up a level in terms of opposition," he added. "No disrespect to Bordeaux, who won our group, but I think Metalist are a little bit stronger than them and this is a huge test for us.
"I think being at home in the second leg is always an advantage -- you've got the possibility of extra time and penalties on your home ground -- but I think the advantage we may have is we don't have a game at the weekend. That helps us enormously."
New signing Yoan Gouffran is expected to return to training next week after suffering an injury in the 2-1 loss to Tottenham at the weekend; the French international would have been ineligible to take part in the Europa League anyway, having represented Bordeaux in the previous stage.
Hatem Ben Arfa and Danny Simpson are also expected to miss out. Metalist are on a winter break, and have no real injury problems to concern them.
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Expected lineups: Krul; Santon, Taylor, Yanga-Mbiwa, Haidara; Tiote, Anita; Marveaux, Sissoko, Obertan; Cisse.
Metalist: Goryainov; Villagra, Gueye, Torsiglieri, Fininho; Torres, Marlos, Blanco, Cleiton, Willian; Cristaldo.
Prediction: 1-0 to Newcastle
