Key events
18 min: Nick Pope darts off his line to punch clear a cross that Robert Lewandowski was rather hoping to nod past him and into the Newcastle goal. The contact isn’t clean but it’s enough to avert the danger. Good goalkeeping.
17 min: Jules Kounde finds himself on the ball near the halfway line with Tino Livramento snapping at his heels like a little terrier. Newcastle’s players aren’t giving their opposition a second’s peace on the ball.
16 min: From that corner Newcastle win another, from which nothing comes. The ball sails into the hands of Joan Garcia in the Barcelona goal.
14 min: Kieran Trippier shifts inside his man and gets the ball on his left foot. He shapes to shoot, then changes his mind inexplicably, electing to scoop the ball towards Harvey Barnes on the left side of the penalty area instead. He wins a corner for Newcastle but Trippier really should have had a pop from a great position.
12 min: There’s a break in play as somebody in a Newcastle shirt receives treatment for a head injury. Who is it? Looks like … eh … ahh … he’s back on his feet. It’s Tino Livramento and he seems to be fine.
11 min: Eddie Howe will be delighted with his team’s performance in these early stages. They’re showing no sign of nerves on their return to the Champions League and certainly aren’t intimidated by the exalted status of their visitors.
10 min: Barcelona make a rare sortie into Newcastle territory and Rashford tries his luck. Wide.
9 min: Barnes advances down the left, plays a give-and-go inside to Tonali and strikes the beautifully weighted return ball goalwards. The build-up was excellent but the shot is weak and Garcia saves comfortably.
8 min: Harvey Barnes bears down on goal and lifts the ball over Garcia only to see it bounce just wide of the far post. The flag goes up and his blushes are spared.
6 min: Excellent play by Elanga down the right, who beats Gerard Martin and pulls a superb ball back to the onrushing Anthony Gordon. With the goal gaping, he shoots and misses the ball completely. Dearie me.
4 min: Barca goalkeeper Joan Garcia puts the ball out for a throw-in under a ferocious Newcastle high press. The visitors are struggling to play it out from the back because Newcastle’s players are hunting them in packs.
3 min: Dan Burn hooks a Kieran Trippier long-throw into the Newcastle penalty area from the right but it’s cleared by Araujo.
2 min: Barcelona skipper Ronaldld Araujo stands firm in the box as Harvey Barnes tries to pass him. The Newcastle winger bounces off the defender and goes to ground, prompting Newcastle’s fans to appeal for a penalty. Their howls fall on deaf ears.
Newcastle United v Barcelona is go …
1 min: Barcelona get the ball rolling, their players a vision in salmon pink kit. It’s immediately played forward to Marcus Rashford, who wins his header. Fabian Schar is on hand to win the second ball and clear any danger.
Not long now: Led by Swedish referee Glenn Nyberg and his match officials, both sets of players march out into an arena that is stuffed to capacity with febrile Geordies desperate to see their team get the better of their exalted visitors. The tifo is AC/DC themed, the Champions League anthem is anything but and kick-off is just a few minutes away. Will Barcelona be thunderstruck in this hostile environment? We’ll find out in due course …
An email: “I’m glad you mentioned suspension machine Anthony Gordon, who has me asking the now standard pre-match question: how will he get sent off tonight/this morning (5am kick off, is this really worth getting up for?),” writes Chris Paaraskevas from Down Under.
“I’m quite enjoying that he’s brought a quintessentially ‘continental’ (to use the old Neil Warnock backhanded compliment/barely disguised insult) state of constant readiness to sacrifice his own team’s chances to satiate his emotional whims via late challenges, sucker punches and bad haircuts. But at least he didn’t desert us like the Other Bloke.”
Speaking of Neil Warnock, the legendary manager won’t be tuning into this match as he is performing his one-man show at the London Palladium tonight. Now there’s a sentence I didn’t think I’d ever type …
Tino Asprilla: Newcastle’s former striker, who scored a hat-trick in their 3-2 win over Barcelona in 1997, has just been interviewed pitchside alongside his former teammates Shay Given and John Beresford on TNT Sports after being flown in from Colombia as a special guest for tonight’s match. I say interviewed but it was Beresford and Given who did most of the talking, as Tino’s English isn’t great.
Nevertheless, he seems to be having a terrific time and was beaming throughout, especially when Given accused him of diving to win the penalty he subsequently scored in that particular game. A game he started, according to Given, only because Alan Shearer and Les Ferdinand were unavailable. It seems Tino was in Kenny Dalglish’s bad books because he’d arrived late back from international duty after attending a party in Colombia. Textbook Tino.
Tonight’s match officials
Some reader correspondence: “The visitors are legendary for being Mes Que Un Club,” writes Peter Oh. “The home side are desperate to prove that they are Mes Que Un Isak. And I just hope that this match turns out to be Mes Que Un Bore Draw.”
Eddie Howe: “When we were drawn against Barcelona, it had a magical feel to it,” said the Newcastle head coach. “I’m really excited to sample the atmosphere – I think it will be an incredible thing again. We will try to get a positive result and prepare the players for the game. I’m looking forward to how we match up against them and there is a lot of confidence restored after winning on Saturday.”
On Newcastle’s return to the Champions League: “The build-up is different to the Premier League and having done it before, that can help us again,” he said. “The squad is arguably stronger – it has changed from two years ago and I back the quality that we have. The early games are really important because they set the tone and that’s why we are really focusing on our performance to try and deliver a good one.”
Meanwhile in Manchester: Following a summer departure from Manchester City that he wasn’t massively enthused about, Kevin De Bruyne is back at the Etihad with vengeance – or at the very least a mild sense of disgruntlement – on his mind. Simon Burnton is monitoring the action in the game between City and Napoli …
Newcastle United v Barcelona line-ups
Newcastle United: Pope, Trippier, Schar, Burn, Livramento, Joelinton, Guimaraes, Tonali, Elanga, Gordon, Barnes
Substitutes: Thompson, Ramsdale, Hall, Botman, Thiaw, Krafth, Osula, J. Murphy, Woltemade, Willock, A. Murphy, Miley
Barcelona: J Garcia, Kounde, Araujo, Cubarsi, Martin, Pedri, De Jong, Raphinha, Fermin Lopez, Rashford, Lewandowski
Substitutes: Ferran, Christensen, Casado, Olmo, Bernal, Eric, Szczesny, Jofre, Roony, Fernandez, Kochen
Nick Woltemade on the bench for Newcastle
Despite scoring on his debut against Wolves on Saturday, Newcastle’s gangly new striker has to settle for a place on the bench this evening, with Anthony Gordon preferred. As grand a match and occasion as this is for Newcastle, it could be argued that their upcoming game against Bournemouth, which Gordon can’t play in, is more important, so Howe may have one eye on that. Anthony Elanga also comes into the Newcastle side, with Jacob Murphy making way.
Newcastle’s league phase opposition: Barcelona (h), Union St Gilloise (a), Benfica (h), Athletic Club (h), Marseille (a), Bayer Leverkusen (a), PSV Eindhoven (h), Paris Saint-Germain (a).
Barcelona’s league phase opposition: Newcastle (a), Paris Saint-Germain (h), Olympiacos (h), Club Brugge (a), Chelsea (a), Eintracht Frankfurt (h), Slavia Prague (a), Copenhagen (h).
Newcastle United: Of a certain age? Want to feel really old? Well, get this – Faustino Asprilla will be among the luminaries in attendance at St James’ Park when Newcastle welcome Barcelona to Tyneside for only the second time since the Colombian striker helped put the Spanish giants to the sword with a hat-trick 28 years and one day ago. Yes, it was that long ago. Words: Louise Taylor.
Early team news
Yet to make his debut for Newcastle after signing from Brentford towards the end of the transfer window, Yoane Wissa has been ruled out of tonight’s match with injury and is expected to be out for several more weeks. The striker is suffering from a knee injury he suffered on international duty with DR Congo in a match against Senegal.
Midfielder Jacob Ramsey will also be forced to sit tonight’s match out, as he recovers from an ankle injury that forced him out of Newcastle’s scoreless Premier League draw with Leeds at half-time. The signing from Aston Villa is not expected to return to action until after the next international break. Although he is currently serving a domestic suspension, Anthony Gordon is eligible and available for selection tonight, although Eddie Howe was understandably reluctant to say whether the winger and occasional False 9 would start or come off the bench.
In excellent news for either Tino Livramento or Lewis Hall, Lamine Yamal is sidelined with a lower back problem. Ever the diplomat, Howe described the winger’s absence as “a shame”. Reports from Spain suggest the teenager played through the pain for Spain with the help of an injection in their World Cup qualifying win over Turkey, despite having asked to be stood down because he was in too much discomfort. Marc-Andre Ter Stegen, Alejandro Balde and Gavi are also out, while there are doubts over the fitness of Frenkie De Jong, who has recovered from a groin issue. Marc Casado is expected to deputise if the Dutch midfielder doesn’t start.
Robert Lewandowski is a near certainty to start up front for Barca and will be hoping to add to the nine goals he has scored in his past seven appearances in the league phase of the Champions League. The Polish international scored two in Sunday’s thrashing of Valencia after coming off the bench in the 68th minute.
Champions League: Newcastle United v Barcelona
Having sneaked into the Champions League on goal difference on the final day of last season, Newcastle get their campaign under way with a match-up that could scarcely be more glamourous. Eddie Howe’s side welcome Barcelona to St James’ Park and while the students of Dundee High School might not be present, the ground will be rocking as Newcastle begin their latest attempt to make the knockout stages for the first time in their history.
They have played Barcelona four times previously, losing on three occasions and winning once. Their most recent match against the five-times European Cup winners was played in March 2003, when Patrick Kluivert and Thiago Motta scored the goals for Barca in a 2-0 win at St James’ Park. Unbeaten so far this season, Hansi Flick’s side come to Tyneside in decent form and on the back of a 6-0 drubbing of Valencia.
Their hosts have had a mediocre start to the season, taking just five points from 12 available in the Premier League thus far. However, they did notch up their first victory in beating Wolves at the weekend, so confidence will be high. Kick-off is at 8pm but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
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