It was a difficult night for Newcastle.
Newcastle United manager Eddie Howe stressed that his side have no time to dwell on their emphatic Champions League exit at the hands of Barcelona after a second-half collapse saw them humbled 7-2 at Camp Nou.
The Magpies headed to Catalonia dreaming of pulling off an upset after they were only denied a famous first-leg win over Barcelona by a last-gasp penalty from Lamine Yamal, which secured a 1-1 draw for the Blaugrana at St James’ Park.
And, despite falling twice falling behind in the opening 18 minutes of the second leg, Newcastle could still harbour hopes of progression half an hour into an absorbing first half, Anthony Elanga scoring a brace to restore parity each time.
However, a Yamal penalty on the stroke of half-time after Kieran Trippier had pulled back Raphinha served as a hammer blow to Newcastle, with their failure to keep things level before half-time exacerbated by a dismal start to the second half.
Fermin Lopez surged through to make it 4-2 on the night and leave Newcastle with a mountain to climb, and the task became impossible for Howe’s men as Barca then ran riot with two goals in five minutes from Robert Lewandowski before a second from Raphinha capped off a chastening night for Howe’s men.
Howe rues Newcastle errors
Newcastle can still reflect on a Champions League campaign on which they achieved their initial objective of getting to the last 16 of the knockout phase, which served as uncharted territory for the club. The Magpies were in the last 16 in 2002-03, but contested a second group stage with Barca, Inter Milan and Bayer Leverkusen.
But Howe rued the individual errors made in both halves that saw a tie that looked winnable for long periods ultimately proved beyond his team.
“Tough way to go out,” Howe told TNT Sports. “[It’s] really strange to try and sum that up because first half I thought we were excellent, albeit probably throughout both halves we didn’t defend the key moments well enough, quite a few individual errors, that’s ultimately cost us.
“I think the second half, we were nowhere near as good as we were in the first, and they deservedly go through.”
On the penalty just before half-time, Howe added: “I think psychologically that was a tough one for the lads, right on half time, again last kick of the game, very similar to what happened at the end of the game in the first leg. And then they scored quite quickly after half-time, and psychologically we didn’t seem to recover from that moment, second half was tough.”
“It’s hard to play against,” Howe said of Barca’s style. “But I thought first half we controlled that relatively well. I thought we had a lot of high regains, a lot of counter-attack opportunities for us, a lot of really good play, I thought it was a great representation of how we play in that first period.
“But the first goal I think two players slip, the second goal is a set play, so amongst all that good play we’ve given them two goals really, so I think they’re the key moments in the game.”
Newcastle face Tyne-Wear derby challenge
A difficult night for Newcastle was compounded by Sandro Tonali limping off with an apparent groin injury, leaving him as a doubt for Sunday’s Tyne-Wear derby against Sunderland, with Howe making it clear his players must brush off this disappointment quickly as they aim to continue an upturn in domestic results and avenge a 1-0 defeat to their local rivals back in December.
“Sandro, of course, had a bit of illness coming into the game, I think he was beginning to fatigue,” Howe explained.
“I think he feels something in and around his groin area, so that could be a problem for us. Yeah, there was a few players we were trying to manage in that second half.
“We have a massive game on Sunday, so there’s no time for us to dwell or feel sorry for ourselves. We’ve got a huge game for our supporters, for the football club, for the whole city on Sunday, and we need to focus on that.”
