**Newcastle United eventually crumbled to a huge defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the Camp Nou, losing 7-2 (8-3 on aggregate) last night.**
The result hides some excellent attacking football by United, but not the terrible defending that ultimately led to such a crushing result.
United were more than a match for their hosts in the first half and probably could’ve gone in at half time ahead in the game if we’d taken our chances and been awarded a penalty (despite that fact that it would’ve been a soft one) but a disastrous 15 minutes following the restart saw the game completely taken away from us as we conceded three goals.
Here’s my two good and two bad from the game:
**Good: The belief to give them a game (for 45 minutes)**
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Some of the football we played in the first half was scintillating. The passing was crisp and penetrative, our pace in attack scared the living hell out of their defenders, and it was genuinely one of the most exhilarating halves of football we have produced this season.
You could see that the lads felt they could take the game to Barca and for long periods we were arguably the better side playing the better football against one of the best sides in Europe. Despite that we still managed to end the first half behind thanks to some, frankly amateur defending (more on that to come).
Individually (in the first half only), Hall was immense again, Elanga finally came to the party, and Tonali was solid, but nobody could fault the effort (attacking wise) of anybody in the first half. Apart from…
**Bad: Amateurish defending against world class stars**
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For all the attacking prowess in the first half, there was some embarrassingly amateur level defending on display. Barca’s first came via two slips at vital moments in the move, the second is Dan Burn’s fault for dropping too soon when clearly the instruction was to hold a high line, and Trippier’s pull on Raphinha for the penalty was academic in the era of VAR in this competition.
Thiaw lost concentration, surrendering possession for a guilt-edged chance for Yamal too in the first 45 and it was only a heroic tackle from Burn that spared his blushes (and a terrible miss from the Spaniard too).
Then the second half was just a clown show of defending at this level. The move for their fourth saw Tonali just let his man run off him and he barely looked interested in chasing back, the fifth is some pathetically weak defending from Tino at the back post from a corner, Thiaw again got his feet in a mess for the sixth, and the less said about Ramsey’s cross field ball (yes, he slipped but come one) for the seventh the better.
It was keystone cops’ stuff, although by the end I was starting to think some of those early 20th century silent movie era actors could’ve done a better job of defending than United’s 21st century professional footballers such was the kamikaze level on display.
**Good: Big lessons learned and Elanga boost**
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Whilst this point is not specific to the game, I think it’s important to point out that the team has clearly evolved since the last Champions League campaign. The delight at just being back in the competition has been replaced by a genuine belief that we could’ve done something in this match.
Despite how raw the gutting feeling was at the final whistle; we must try and learn from this experience (as we did from the last UCL campaign) and try to comeback stronger the next time we are back in the competition.
A defeat of this magnitude must be a lesson about the level of player required to compete in this competition, and the club must try to bridge that gap with a much better showing in the transfer market than it has been able to produce over the last few years.
On the subject of what we can take forward from this, two goals at the Nou Camp on the world’s biggest stage must give Anthony Elanga confidence to kick on. We’ve not seen nearly enough output from our £55m winger, so let’s hope this can finally kickstart a run of consistent form from the Swedish winger.
**Bad: We must be more streetwise**
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Caveat: Barca are an incredible side with some wonderful footballers, and in the end, they schooled us, but we were robbed of the opportunity to play a weakened Barca side by some terrible refereeing in the first leg. Trippier maybe could’ve seen red for the pull back that led to their penalty, but if it was adjudged that the attacker wouldn’t have got there then the yellow is the right decision.
The level of “dark arts” required at this level is such that the lads need to start using the same tactics employed by the most successful sides in managing the refereeing in these competitions, as again, it was of a substandard level that seemed to just be for the benefit of our much more famous opponents.
This one hurts, but we have to recover quickly, and if we can beat the mackems on Sunday then we can park this one for now, but ultimately, whilst I can admit that Barca were the much better side, the fact that so many of their goals came from our own defensive mistakes rankles and I do question the wisdom of changing the defence that was so solid on Saturday again Chelsea.
Sigh, let’s hope this hammering doesn’t affect our mentality going into Sunday.
Keep the faith. HWTL