Brave Newcastle United fall to defeat in Champions League opener against classy Barcelona
Newcastle United tried their hardest on a rare night when you have to admit that Eddie Howe got it all wrong.
Barcelona showed their quality by taking their chances when they came, but if Eddie Howe had played Nick Woltemade from the start and put Anthony Gordon on the left where he belongs, we could have been celebrating tonight.
Newcastle came out of the traps like greyhounds tonight ,with Anthony Elanga looking like he wanted to take on all of Spain, never mind Barcelona, but with Anthony Gordon to aim for in the middle, his efforts were always in vain.
A complete miss-kick from Gordon early on showed exactly why we were upset that he started through the middle. Had a proper striker been on the pitch, that chance would more than likely have been buried and Newcastle could have built on it.
Newcastle missed some gilt-edged chances early on
Soon after, Harvey Barnes had a great opportunity which was saved by Joan Garcia, which caused Mark from the NUFC FEED offices to point out: "Woltemade would have finished Gordon's chance and Gordon would've finished Barnes'"
We will never, ever understand playing Gordon through the middle when there's an actual centre-forward fit and available, as he simply doesn't have a striker's instincts.
Barcelona had most of the possession throughout the whole game, but in the first half, it was Newcastle who looked the most threatening. But then in the second half, Marcus Rashford, who had been absolutely abysmal all game, suddenly awoke and bagged two goals in nine minutes, one of which was an absolute worldie.
Eddie Howe's changes came too late
Rashford's first was a good header that should have been dealt with by Fabian Schar, and probably would have been were he not suffering yet another concussion after taking a full-force shot to the face moments earlier. Schar went to the ground and had to come off moments after.
Schar's substitution was one of four made by Eddie Howe, with Nick Woltemade finally replacing Harvey Barnes, which meant Gordon went back to the left side of the attack, where he belongs. Joe Willock replaced Joelinton, who didn't have his best game, but was still better than Willock. Jacob Murphy replaced Anthony Elanga, which at the time seemed like an odd move given how good Elanga was, while Malick Thiaw replaced the dazed Fabian Schar.
The changes came a bit too late, in our view, though, as we should have had a striker on when we were dominating, but Rashford's first goal swung the game in Barcelona's favour, and it wasn't long before they were 2-0 up thanks to an absolute stunner from Rashford.
The Swedish ref got a bit too whistle-happy at the end of the game
Newcastle did claw their way back into things. Bruno Guimaraes managed a stinging shot straight down the throat of Garcia before Jacob Murphy showed why his being a replacement for Elanga was a good call as he crossed in a low ball for Anthony Gordon to stroke home on 90 minutes.
It was amazing how much better Gordon played when he was in his natural position.
Seven minutes of stoppage time weren't enough for Newcastle to find an equaliser, but it wasn't helped by the referee blowing up every time a Barcelona player tripped while ignoring Sandro Tonali being launched ten yards across the pitch.
Overall, it could have been much worse going up against the competition favourites in game week one, but we still can't help but feel that Eddie Howe got his team selection wrong and it cost us a point at least.
