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Champions League Wednesday wrap-up: Newcastle thrash Qarabag and Bodø/Glimt slay another giant

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Four more Leg 1 matches were played in the Champions League play-off round on Wednesday, with just one draw among the quartet of games.

Clubs are fighting to earn a spot in the round of 16, where the seeded teams from the league phase await.

Here are some of the bigger talking points from Wednesday's Champions League action.

Three fight nights one weekend

Gordon leads Newcastle to massive victory

Newcastle United ended any doubts about the future of their play-off against Qarabag FK as they won 6-1 in Azerbajian to give them a commanding lead ahead of next week's second leg at St. James' Park.

Powered by four goals from Anthony Gordon, the Magpies were overwhelming on the road against a side that defeated Benfica and Eintracht Frankfurt in the league phase. They also held Chelsea to a 2-2 draw in the same stadium during that round of the competition, so their participation in this round is hardly a fluke.

It didn't matter to Newcastle, who were relentless in putting 13 shots on target against their overmatched opponents, with Gordon leading the way as they earned their biggest victory in the Champions League.

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Like every other club balancing multiple competitions, Newcastle face a congested fixture list ahead. However, Wednesday's win means Eddie Howe can make wholesale changes in the second leg in order to keep some of his most important players fresh for other challenges.

Another big victim for Bodø/Glimt

The Norwegian club advanced to this stage of the tournament with just two wins from the league phase. Those two victories just happened to be over Manchester City and Atletico Madrid, and they came in the final two matchdays of the round.

Continuing on with that momentum created from their last two matches, the Superlaget claimed another big victory as they write their name into the history books, this time dispatching Inter Milan by a 3-1 score.

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It was another brave performance from the team that resides above the Arctic Circle, as Glimt soaked up pressure from their Italian opponents and struck whenever the opportunity arose.

There's still 90 minutes left to play next week at the San Siro, always a daunting task, but this team has shown a spirit that has already taken them farther than most would've imagined.

Schick leads Leverkusen

It was a rather straightforward night for Bayer Leverkusen, who left Greece with a 2-0 victory against hosts Olympiacos.

There wasn't much noteworthy from the German side in a rather professional outing, aside from Patrick Schick scoring both of his team's goals to boost them to the first-leg advantage.

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Leverkusen were always going to be heavily favoured to advance over Olympiacos, and Wednesday's result just makes things that much easier for them ahead of the second leg at the BayArena.

UEFA Champions League trophy

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