**Newcastle United folded like a cheap suit in the second half at the Camp Nou on Wednesday night, conceding four goals without reply after already letting three in during the first half.**
At least in the first half, Newcastle were able to fire two goals back in response, but in the second half, Eddie Howe might as well have put cardboard cutouts out on the field instead of his actual players.
After three magnificent halves (three halves will never sound right) where Newcastle stood up to the test posed by one of Europe’s most elite sides, [everything came undone in the final 45 minutes of the tie.](https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2026/03/18/a-brutal-end-to-a-brilliant-champions-league-campaign-barcelona-7-2-newcastle/)
It was a total humiliation and a stark reminder that Newcastle still have a way to go before they can count themselves as elite. However, the fact remains, we got there. We had to get to the Camp Nou in order to face that embarrassment, and that in itself is something to be proud of, which is why, over 24 hours later, we’re able to laugh about it.
Which is just as well because Alan Shearer made a joke about Newcastle’s defence on the latest episode of The Rest Is Football that really could have stung otherwise.
Facing a ribbing from Micah Richards after claiming that Newcastle were in the game for three halves, Richards pointed out Shearer’s hypocrisy after always saying it’s about ‘goals goals goals’, and Shearer hit back with a great response.
> _“I have no defence, Micah…very much like Newcastle!”_
Ouch! But he’s not wrong, with so many of Barcelona’s goals coming via Newcastle mistakes or some miserable defending, which you “can’t get away with a the Nou Camp”. as Shearer pointed out.
Thiaw and Hall slipped for their opening goal, our defending from the set piece gifted Barca their second, Trippier’s pull back led to their third, Burn was dragged out for Barca’s fourth and their fifth, sixth and seventh came thanks to Livramento missing his header, Thiaw getting caught under the ball and Ramsey passing it straight to Raphinha!
Watch the clip below, which also features Shearer’s assessment of the game itself from 3:30 onwards.
It was embarrassing to lose by such a big margin, obviously. But then, when flicking around on social media today, I saw a post from a very smug Sunderland fan who thought he was clever, mocking us for our defeat … in the Champions League … to Barcelona in response to the grief he got for Sunderland being knocked out of the FA Cup at the hands of Port Vale.
This is why we can’t take them seriously. If they honestly think that being knocked out of the Champions League by one of the best clubs in the world is comparable to being sent packing from the FA Cup by the club at the bottom of League One, then there’s just no hope for them.
We take the Barcelona defeat on the chin because we can take a lot of pride in the fact that we were in the position to receive that hammering, and we can laugh at ourselves for what happened, and we can always rely on Sunderland to help us laugh even more.
I just hope now that I haven’t tempted fate ahead of Sunday.