Gaizka Mendieta has been analysing the two teams after Newcastle United and Barcelona met at St James’ Park on Tuesday night.
The former player now a UEFA Technical Observer.
Back in his playing days, midfielder Gaizka Mendieta turned out for the likes of Barcelona, Lazio, Valencia and…Middlesbrough, as well as picking up 40 caps for Spain.
It was an eventful match on Tuesday, the final scoreline not reflecting the overall performances.
Newcastle United should have won the game, comfortably the better team and until that equalising penalty with the final kick of the match, Barcelona had been restricted to only one effort on target and that was a tame effort straight at Aaron Ramsdale.
In contrast, Harvey Barnes hit the post as well as scoring the goal Newcastle United did get, United coming close on a number of other occasions and not making the most of a lot of other good attacking positions they found themselves in.
All of the underlying stats such as shots, efforts on target, touches of the ball in the opposition box, corners etc, showed United with around twice as many as Barcelona in all of these metrics.
As for UEFA Technical Observer and former Barcelona star Gaizka Mendieta, he has compared and contrasted what he watched between Newcastle United and Barcelona.
Gaizka Mendieta summing it up when speaking to official UEFA media as:
“Barcelona knew that if they had the ball for long periods, Newcastle United would struggle.
“Newcastle United knew that if they imposed their high intensity, Barcelona would struggle.”
“Newcastle United got so many second balls, [the Newcastle attackers would] move from the inside into the wide areas rather than starting wide and coming inside”
As for his old team, Gaizka Mendieta saying:
“It doesn’t matter what’s happening throughout the game, Barcelona will always try to play. They’ll always try to get those passes through because, in the same way Newcastle know they have to keep the intensity high, Barcelona need to have that ball. We saw Barcelona holding the ball in tight spaces and under pressure, keeping the ball and passing the ball.”
Barcelona coach Hansi Flick started with three homegrown players in their teens – Pau Cubarsí, Marc Bernal and Lamine Yamal, then brough on another as a substitute – Xavi Espart, who was making his senior debut aged 18.
Gaizka Mendieta believing: “These games toughen up players and those guys will have learned something to become better players. It gives an understanding of what it takes to play in a top Premier League stadium against a tough English team.”
Interesting to see what Gaizka Mendieta, as well as the rest of us, will make of Barcelona and Newcastle United on Wednesday night, which of the contrasting styles will prevail…