Howe insisted that his team showed their true identity for portions of the contest but was left frustrated by the nature of the goals conceded. He pointed to uncharacteristic individual errors and poor set-piece organisation that allowed Barcelona to run riot during the closing stages of the match.
“We gave them a really good game for 90 minutes at St James’ Park and half the game today. That should not all be forgotten, as difficult as the scoreline is to see. That doesn’t reflect how the game was,” Howe added.
“Our defending was not at the level it had been against Chelsea. The first goal, two players slipped. Then there’s a set play. And then the big moment is the penalty. As well as we played in the first half – and I thought we were outstanding, it was a great representation of what we want to be – we made too many errors.
“If we had defended the way we can, we would not have gone in at half‑time trailing. Then we conceded another set play. The first four goals were strange from us: you can’t concede like that. The two set-play goals are unforgivable in that they are regulation. That can’t happen. I don’t think psychologically we recovered [from Lamine Yamal’s penalty].”