Newcastle crashed to their heaviest-ever European defeat as they were beaten 7-2 by Barcelona, with the La Liga leaders booking their place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a scintillating display of attacking football.
The Magpies’ defending fell apart completely as they conceded four goals in the second half, but there is no time for Howe’s squad to stew on their failings with just three days until Sunderland visit St James’ Park looking to follow up December’s win at the Stadium of Light with another derby success.
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Howe is fully aware of the magnitude of Sunday’s game, and is confident there will be a powerful reaction to the Barcelona thrashing and December’s defeat on Wearside.
“Now, it’s all about Sunderland,” said Howe. “It’s not about today. It’s about learning from today, evolving and changing if we need to. But it’s about the next game and making sure we’re mentally and physically ready for what’s going to be a huge game for us and the whole city.
“I think that’s quite a good game for us to go straight into because there’s no time for any other thought now. It’s huge. There’s no point talking about it though, we’ve just got to play. We’ve got to play like our lives depend on it.
“It’s such a big game for the city, for our supporters, for everyone connected with the club. We know that. We knew it before the first game and we know it even more now. We need to deal with this very quickly, and then move on to Sunday.”
Newcastle played well for most of the first half at the Nou Camp, with their lightning-fast attacking play troubling the Barcelona defence. Anthony Elanga scored twice to cancel out goals from Raphinha and Marc Bernal, but the key moment of the game came on the stroke of half-time as a VAR check resulted in the award of a penalty when Kieran Trippier pulled back Raphinha on the edge of the six-yard box.
“The timing of that goal was such a difficult one for us all to take,” said Howe. “It was bang on half-time. We should have been going in at 2-2 with a great feeling that we were still very much in the tie and anything was possible and could happen from that moment.
“But as it was, we were going in with almost a negative feeling. I don’t think we defended the build-up anywhere near enough, but in terms of the outcome, is it a clear and obvious error? I had similar feelings to the one at the other end [when Elanga was pulled back by Joao Cancelo]. Maybe it was a bit of a stronger call than our penalty, but it’s tough on us for one not to be reversed and that one to be.”
Newcastle’s defending was an issue all evening, with Trippier, Malick Thiaw, Dan Burn and Tino Livramento all making crucial errors. The night was summed up by Barcelona’s seventh goal, which saw Jacob Ramsey misplace a lofted pass across his own penalty area and gift possession to Raphinha.
“Our defending was not at the level that it was just a few days ago at Chelsea,” said Howe. “It started with the first goal, when two players slipped, then we conceded from a set-play, then there was the big moment of the penalty.
“As well as we played in the first half, and I thought we were outstanding in many aspects, there were too many individual errors within the performance to carry that great performance through. If we’d defended anywhere near the level that we can, I think we would have been leading at half-time not trailing.”