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Athletic Bilbao fans are heading to Tyneside next week, playing their Champions League match against Newcastle United on Wednesday 5 November.

An 8pm kick-off and Eddie Howe’s side looking to make it nine points from a possible twelve in the opening four Champions League matches.

Meanwhile, Athletic Bilbao fans have seen their team lose 2-0 to Arsenal and 4-1 to Borussia Dortmund, before winning 3-1 against Qarabag.

Barcelona brought no more than 800 fans to St James’ Park last month, which was only a marginal improvement on the 500 or so they brought to Tyneside for each of their previous two Champions League visits.

So what about their La Liga rivals?

In the Champions League, the rules now state that clubs have to give five per cent of their stadium’s capacity to away fans, which in the case of St James’ Park would be around 2,600 tickets minimum (sadly, the likes of PSG are allowed by UEFA to refuse to comply with the minimum five per cent rule, only offering 2,000 tickets each time, rather than the 2,400 or so that away fans should be entitled to).

There were around 2,500 Benfica fans who gave...