It ended Newcastle 1 Barcelona 1.
Ahead of each game we ask one of our writers to come up with three positives and three negatives following the match.
An ‘interesting’ match at St James’ Park.
Plenty to talk about after this Champions League game.
As Newcastle United were very unlucky to only draw in the first leg of this Champions League last 16 tie.
On this occasion it is Billy Miller:
POSITIVES
An exceptional performance
Had we got the win, nobody would have said it was undeserved.
We played the majority of the game on the front foot and created many more chances than our supposedly stellar opponents.
Barnes doesn’t put in consistently brilliant performances, but he comes up with huge goals, and he’s the winger I’d least like to lose from the side.
His goal was seconds from being one of the most celebrated in our Champions League history. That final kick equaliser will mean it won’t be remembered with quite the same fondness that it might have been.
Some titanic performances but Lewis Hall could genuinely become the best left back in the world if he continues to develop the way he has so far. He played many quality through balls off the back of spectacular dribbles. With a world class striker to feed, he would be getting bundles of assists. I think he’ll become a player that scores and creates plenty of goals in future seasons.
With Tino back in the reckoning now, if he can get up to his top level, and both he and Hall stay fit, I think we’ll end the season in good form.
Atmosphere
I wasn’t there yesterday but I was at PSG a couple of years ago.
I remember wondering amidst that raucous atmosphere how it would be sounding on TV. I imagine it was something like I was hearing watching this game in my living room last night.
For all the first half and large portions of the second, the crowd was vociferous and that buoyed our players and seemed to make theirs shrink.
The magnificence of the maligned
My 11 year old bizarrely spent much of the start of the season calling Elanga, ‘the Premier League Lamine Yamal’.
Tonight, our right winger was considerably better than theirs and that comparison wouldn’t have seemed quite as wild.
His final product was lacking but he beat players time and again and constantly got in behind the high line. It was one of his best performances for us.
Ramsey pressed and harried, took players on and was part of some clever moments, not to mention his one two with Murphy that allowed the winger to whip in the assist.
These two players have been criticised by some as poor summer signings. Elanga still has to do a lot for me to justify his price tag but he’s young and I can see him improving. Ramsey is a quality player and doesn’t look out of our place in our midfield at all now.
NEGATIVES
Up front options
Imagine you had been asked this question when the summer transfer window closed, ‘who would be your starting striker in a home tie in the last 16 of the Champions League?’
Do you think you would have answered, ‘Will Osula’? No, I can’t imagine many would.
When Gordon withdrew from the starting line-up through illness, £120m of summer striker signings sat on the bench whilst Will Osula started.
I’m not necessarily saying it was the wrong decision on the night as we needed pace to exploit their high line. It definitely wasn’t a match made for Woltemade but it’s a worry that a proven Premier League striker such as Wissa isn’t being trusted over our erratic wildcard. Osula scored a spectacular goal against Man Utd but he was wasteful against Barcelona and there are still massive flaws in his game.
Then, an unwell Gordon is preferred to either natural striking option to come off the bench and replace the Dane.
I hate to say it but our former number 14 would have definitely scored against that high line. Osula got in some good positions but didn’t do enough, or make the right decisions.
Poor game management
We just needed to hold that ball. We had the win.
With three minutes on the clock, you could see Trippier calling to the team to calm things down from the bench.
In fairness we were completely on top even in injury time. We were winning every ball and getting into good positions. I could see why we’d want to try and grab a second. But, when it got to those last few seconds, we just needed to calm it down and take the 1-0.
When Gordon gets the ball on the halfway line, he has Ramsey running free on his immediate left. Willock is coming up behind him and could receive an easy ball. Instead, Gordon choses to swivel right and play an ambitious lofted through ball to Tonali to complete what would have been a spectacular one-two. The pass was poor and Tonali was in a less promising position to maintain possession even if it had gone to him. We just needed to slow it down, play a few passes and we would have won.
Instead, Barcelona come back at us and spend 45 seconds walking it into our half. Nearly twenty seconds over the allotted four minutes added time, none of our players are close enough to Olmo who has room to turn and run into the box and earn a penalty. Despite our entire team being behind the ball as they built the attack, we couldn’t see out a few more seconds.
Officially useless
It’s getting boring moaning about refs and officials, but, they really are awful these days.
Were they always so bad?
I can’t complain about the penalty, that was correct. We can’t even moan too much about the extra time in added time. Tonali took at least thirty seconds on a free-kick as we seemed unsure whether we were playing it short, launching it forward, bringing up the defenders or not.
But the general refereeing was terrible.
A Newcastle player only had to look in the direction of a Barcelona one and they would concede a free-kick. There were so many soft fouls or plain incorrect ones given, often when we’d nicked the ball and were building an attack. A couple of corners saw us give up free-kicks without any of our players doing more than gently moving towards their opponent.
On the other side of it, lots of players escaped yellow cards (including a couple of ours). Had Yamal got one that he deserved, he’d be missing the second leg.
You can follow the author on Twitter @billymerlin