Newcastle United were cruelly robbed of the opportunity to go into the UCL last 16 second leg at the Camp Nou with the advantage as a last kick of the game penalty saw the match finish 1-1. United were somewhere near their cavaliering best in a performance that warranted much more than it got.
The goals came via Harvey Barnes and a Lamine Yamal penalty, but that is only scratching the surface of what was an enthralling encounter.
Here’s my three good and one bad from the game:
Good: England’s best left-back pockets Yamal
For all the hype surrounding the Spanish youngster in the build-up, you’d be forgiven for forgetting he was even on the pitch, such was Lewis Hall’s dominance throughout the 90 mins. Yes, Yamal scored the last-minute penalty, but despite a couple of silky touches, he was pretty much anonymous.
Hall created five chances, he had 56 touches in the match, played 3/4 accurate passes, seven recoveries and his attacking threat and ceaseless engine were a huge contribution to what should’ve been a famous win.
There’s no debate anymore, for me, about who is England’s best LB, and it would be bordering on a crime if the lad isn’t starting at the World Cup this summer
Bad: The UEFA mafia appointed referee
When both Fermin Lopez and Lamine Yamal weren’t booked for the most cynical of fouls, I just chalked it up to officiating incompetence. When I learned after the game that both would be suspended for the second leg, I more than smelt a whiff of stinking UEFA mafia corruption.
How Marco Guida deemed either of those not worthy of a yellow card stinks, much like the PSG penalty at their place a couple of years ago, it rankles and has all the hallmarks of “we just can’t have certain teams go out of the competition early/potentially weaken them for a crucial second leg”.
What really makes this shambles of a ref stand out is that, generally, the standard of refereeing in this competition has been leagues better than what the Premier League serves up week after week, but apparently when the chips are down for one of Europe’s biggest sides they can count on a referee to be in their corner.
Oh, and the ref played for two minutes beyond the additional four when there were no stoppages in that initial four minutes…and throw in his apparent leftover beef with Sandro Tonali from his time in Italy and it just feels like the ref had an axe to grind with us this evening.
Good: Heart, fight, passion, quality, and more
This performance was everything Man City was not. The lads pressed and harried, never letting Barca settle on the ball, apart from two decent spells of possession they had. We wanted it more, the defence were magnificent and Ramsdale didn’t have a save to make throughout the game.
The heart, the fight, everything you need to display when you are the underdog was present on an evening that warranted so much more in terms of the result. There will be obvious questions about why we cannot seem to put in this level of performance consistently, but that’s for a later article.
Joelinton, Tonali, and Ramsey ran the midfield at times in the face of Barca’s undoubted quality. Osula ran his heart out and made dangerous runs, Elanga’s pace was electric (he still needs to find a better final ball) and he caused their defence so many issues by getting in behind and between the lines.
If only we could play like this every week, but what we will need to do, is play like this next week at the Camp Nou to try to get through the tie.
Good: Nothing to fear second leg
Hopefully, the lads have learnt from this evening that this isn’t the same Barca side we played in September. You can get at them, you will get chances, and we must have no fear in the second leg.
We must believe as the tie is poised on a knife edge, and this was a United side that lacked some of its best players via injury and illness. We proved we are more than a match for them physically, yes, there may be quality differences, but there were times on Tuesday when Barca were rattled by our peerless running and press.
Barnes and Gordon can score in this competition, Livramento is back, Tonali is approaching his best, Ramsey is finally coming of age, and we still have Woltemade and others in reserve. We have nothing to fear going to the camp Nou if we play like that again.
Bring it on and get into them!
Keep the faith. HWTL
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