Newcastle United yet again blow one-goal lead away from home to fall to defeat as Marseille pinch win in Champions League
Eddie Howe's much-changed Newcastle United side couldn't follow up their impressive win over Manchester City with a win against Marseille in the Champions League.
Newcastle's inability to win on the road continues as, for the third away game in a row, they've blown a one-goal lead to come away empty-handed.
It took Harvey Barnes just six minutes to get himself on the score sheet once again, and that was job done for Newcastle.
Or at least you'd think that was the case, as it seems that this team believe that it's the first team to score wins when they're playing away from home.
Eddie Howe, it's time to admit that Anthony Gordon is not and never will be a centre-forward
Howe surprised a few people with how his team set up, with Tino Livramento at left wing back and Jacob Murphy on the right and a back three, and it worked ... for five minutes.
I was particularly harsh on Joe Willock before the game when we found out he was starting in midfield, and I will walk those comments back. Willock actually had a decent game.
I was also equally critical of the decision to play Anthony Gordon as a centre-forward, and I felt extremely vindicated with those remarks on the stroke of half-time when Willock made a superb gut-busting run, played a quality ball to Anthony Gordon, who let the ball run between his legs rather than hitting it first time into the back of the net.
If that isn't the last time we see Anthony Gordon as a centre-forward, then I give up, I really do. Marseille would have been done and dusted if Newcastle had gone in at half-time with a two-goal lead.
36-year-old Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made our defence look stupid several times tonight
Instead, Roberto De Zerbi gave his side a proper kick up the backside, and they came out of the blocks with frightening pace in the second half and were level within a minute of the restart thanks to a goal from octogenarian striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, who might have just ended Nick Pope's career. If we're lucky.
Nick Pope came rushing out of his area, got skinned alive by Aubameyang, who curled an effort from out wide into a wide-open goal. Clearly, the concussion Nick Pope suffered against Brentford did some permanent damage.
There wasn't much Pope could have done with Aumabeyang's second, just four minutes later, which came after some brilliant attacking play by the French side.
Newcastle didn't wake up again until it was too late, as is often the case lately. If we could play the middle 80 minutes with the same intensity as we play the opening and closing five minutes of each game we'd be top of the league.
