Newcastle boss Alan Pardew feels his side have a good chance of winning the Europa League after seeing off Metalist Kharkiv on Thursday.
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The Magpies progressed to the next round of the competition after Shola Ameobi's second-half penalty secured a 1-0 aggregate win over the Ukrainians.
With the Tyneside club expecting the return of key players to the fold when they take on Anzhi Makhachkala in the last 16, the Toon manager is confident they can go all the way in Europe's second-tier competition.
"It's an important result for us," he said.
"We lost Cheick just before the game, but Vurnon [Anita] did an excellent job coming in late. He only knew an hour before we kicked off that he was going to play.
"With [Hatem] Ben Arfa coming back and Cheick to add to that side, I really feel as though we can give this competition a good go."
The former West Ham boss also admitted he had shared words of encouragement with match-winner Shola Ameobi prior to the game, and was pleased with the Newcastle striker's performance on the night.
"I had a little quiet word with Shola before the game because, in the last few weeks, I thought his contribution could have been greater," he continued.
"But he's shown tonight what quality he has. Against this team, I always thought he might influence the game. He did that all night really and it bodes well moving forward."
Pardew also added he would now look ahead to their fortunes on the domestic front, with three points the goal in this weekend's Barclays Premier League game against Southampton.
"We had some real heroes today and it's been a great week for us. We just need to repeat it on Sunday because that will be an important game," he added.
"It could give us some breathing space in the Premier League, so we need to recover quickly. There will be changes for Sunday and hopefully we will get a result."
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