Bitter Pills To Swallow At Barcelona

After being the better side for 75% of this tie Newcastle gifted Barcelona five of last night's seven goals in a defensive horror show that will give Eddie Howe nightmares.

From hope to horror in a heartbeat

After twice coming back after Barcelona led - with Elanga getting a brace - Newcastle and us fans had every hope that the second half could see us go ahead and win.

But, just like the last minute knife to the heart penalty at SJP, come the last minute of the first half Trippier foolishly pulled Raphinha in the penalty area when he had no chance of getting to the ball.

Lamal did what he did at SJP and Barcelona went into the dressing room on a high while the Lads went in on a slump.

Six minutes into the second half the tie was effectively over when two superb passes carved Newcastle apart and Fermin Lopez easily slotted the ball past Ramsdale to put the hosts 4-2 up on the night and 5-3 on aggregate,

That two goal lead changed the tone of the game completely.

Two quick blows totally knocked the wind out of Newcastle and left Barcelona to blow a gale through a team and defence that fell apart and scattered in all directions.

The only scant consolation was that Barcelona didn't increase the humiliation by adding to their seven goal tally with twenty minutes still to play.

Amongst the debris...

I've read last night's comments and I am not surprised at the wave of criticism that has flooded over the team and especially the defensive performance.

Being on the end of a 7-2 defeat never results in dancing in the street,

But...

Let's not forget that we were arguably the better team for 75% of the two ties.

Missed chances and a last minute penalty cost us a two or even three goal lead in the first leg.

In the the first half at the Nou Camp we constantly threatened Barcelona and looked the team more likely to score - Barcelona only scoring after a slip from Lewis Hall and a free kick.

We produced those excellent performances without Gordon and Bruno starting in the home game and with a sickness affected Tonali and no Bruno last night.

Against a team of Barcelona's class, performing as we did without all of our key players has to be regarded as a positive among the debris of the second half calamity.

For large periods in both games we had the Spanish matadors on the horns and they were mightily relieved that we didn't inflict greater wounds.

So, let's keep last night's defeat in perspective.

We lost to one of the world's great teams. Next up Sunderland.

Slay the Mackem's and it's Sunday samba in the Toon

What better way to recover from the hangover of last night than beating the enemy from Wearside. I can't think of one.

Toon fans won't have samba'd down the Ramblas after last night's game but we can do the Geordie version down the Bigg Market if we put Sunderland to the sword.

Let's look forward to that instead of dwelling on what happened at the Nou Camp.

Memories in football can be short.

Beat Sunderland and the Barca memory will fade into the background.

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