Newcastle United's English coach Eddie Howe looks on before the UEFA Champions League last 16 second leg football match between FC Barcelona and Newcastle United at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP via Getty Images)placeholder image
Newcastle United's English coach Eddie Howe looks on before the UEFA Champions League last 16 second leg football match between FC Barcelona and Newcastle United at the Camp Nou stadium in Barcelona, on March 18, 2026. (Photo by Josep LAGO / AFP via Getty Images) | AFP via Getty Images
Newcastle United host Tyne-Wear rivals Sunderland at St James’ Park on Sunday.
The Magpies exited the Champions League at the round of 16 stage on Wednesday night after losing 8-3 to Barcelona on aggregate. The two teams drew 1-1 at St James’ Park in the first leg but Hansi Flick’s side hammered United at the Camp Nou to win 7-3.
Anthony Elanga twice pulled Newcastle back on level terms after goals from Raphinha and Marc Bernal before Lamine Yamal’s penalty made it 3-2 with the last kick of the first half.
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The hosts then ran riot in the second half. Fermin Lopez scored and then Robert Lewandowski scored a brace before Raphinha also added his second.
Eddie Howe reflects on Newcastle United’s 7-2 defeat to Barcelona
Reflecting on his side’s thrashing, Howe said: “Yeah, I think our performance dropped [in the second-half]. I think that was quite clear.
“The first four goals, you can't concede. The two set plays are sort of unforgivable to a degree because you know how good they are in other aspects of their play. So to concede from two sort of regulation, one free kick, one corner, that can't happen if you're going to progress.
“And as I said, I think psychologically we never recovered from the moment at half-time for whatever reason that was. Whether we felt that we should have had a penalty at the other end, I don't know. But there was certainly a dip in our performance.
“The players gave so much to that opening, sort of 55, 60 minutes. I think that was the toughest period we had in the game, that middle period between 60 minutes and 80 minutes was really difficult for us.
“I have to compliment their technical delivery, their midfield players I thought were excellent today and of course their attackers, when given chances, were ruthless as well. I thought we gave them a really good game for the whole 90 minutes at St James' Park and then for a half today.
Eddie Howe on Sunderland clash - ‘play like our lives depend on it’
Despite the club suffering the heaviest defeat in its European history, Howe insists there is no time to dwell on it with Sunderland to visit St James’ Park on Sunday.
Newcastle are plotting revenge after losing 1-0 to their bitter rivals in the reverse meeting in December.
Howe said: “Yeah, I've got no problems picking myself up. It's more the players. I'm able to move quite quickly through things in the game and the review process to then think of the future very quickly.
“Now it's all about Sunderland. It's not about what's happened today. It's about learning from today and evolving and changing if we need to.
“But it's about the next game and making sure we're mentally ready, physically ready for what's going to be a huge game for us and for the whole city.
“So I think that's quite a good game for us to go straight into because there's no time for any other thought than that one.”
He added: “Yeah, it's huge. I think it's difficult for me to talk about it. I think 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 that before the first game. We know it even more now, so we need to deal with this very quickly and then look to Sunday.
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