Newcastle United – Barcelona: Magpies Ruin A Perfect Nest (1-1)

The Catalans may have calmed, but Newcastle United had found their route through the high defensive line. Despite not making the most of their chances, Harvey Barnes must have thought his late goal would carry a vital lead to the Spanish coast, until there was a final twist in the tale.

Tactical analysis and match report by Joel Parker.

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English teams facing the Spanish have been the bedrock of great Champions League knockout games in the modern era. The financial powerhouse of the Premier League has seen more clubs surviving longer. For the established elite, their task has become more difficult.

Barcelona can flex an impressive record: thirteen wins from their last eighteen games against the Prem, including a 2-1 victory at St James’ Park in the league phase. Hansi Flick has established an attack strong enough to win this competition, but the script is a similar one going into the round of sixteen. An offside trap that can be pried open and a team that can be led down the garden path when it comes to transitions: even recent La Liga games against Elche and Girona showcased some vulnerabilities. 

Big European nights, under Eddie Howe, have been established by intensity, and Newcastle needed to find some of that aggression. Twelfth in the standings and a recent FA Cup exit, plenty rides on their progression in the Champions League to declare this season a success or not. The problem for Newcastle is that their application in the 4-5-1 medium block can leave them with dilemmas in between the lines. Could the press be restrictive enough to stop Barca from entering this phase so often? 

Howe was without his top scorer in the competition, Anthony Gordon, who was not fit enough to start. William Osula kept his starting place as Newcastle made three changes from the team that lost to Manchester City. Dan Burn and Joelinton, two of Howe’s most trusted leaders, were recalled, whilst Jacob Ramsey also came into the midfield in place of Nick Woltemade, who had played the last few games deeper in the structure.

Five changes were made to the Barca team that beat Athletic Club. Raphinha returned to Lamine Yamal’s opposite side, whilst Flick also reinforced his team with trusted players. Robert Lewandowski, Pedri, Fermín López and Ronald Araújo all came into the starting eleven.

Stoking the trademark intensity

The definition of “intensity” in football tactics is usually reserved for a team’s high press or the speed at which their jumps, out of possession, can be recorded. But teams can take an intense approach in many ways, although the man-to-man setup that Newcastle arranged played a part in stopping the Barca buildup from setting high up the pitch.

Aaron Ramsdale’s distribution was long towards the channels, often ignoring the short pass to the center-backs. Carries from Ramsey and Anthony Elanga achieved high territory on the right side of the field for Newcastle, the English midfielder often moving in the spaces behind Pedri at the start of the game. Meanwhile, corners and deep set pieces saw the tall frame of Dan Burn enter the equation. The deliveries into the area, from dead-ball and crossing situations, were at a substandard level from the hosts (an ongoing pattern throughout this first leg), but it was clear that Newcastle had got the game state that they had desired most under Eddie Howe, making the opponent uncomfortable from the start.

Attacking the high defensive line has been the go-to operation for any team facing Flick’s Barca, and this would be the case once again. Long switching to Lewis Hall would be the formula; Araújo starting as the right fullback (Jules Koundé out until April with a hamstring injury) did come as a surprise, and his late jump onto Hall left the defence vulnerable, although he did get better at reading some of the channel passes as the game continued. Pau Cubarsí would have to shift onto Harvey Barnes, and Osula timed his runs between the spaces of the center-backs.

5^th minute: Clean break in the left halfspace from Newcastle. Malick Thiaw switched the play from right to left, and Araújo jumped onto Hall. Even though Hall had to control a high pass, he still had the time to bring the ball down and jump through the gaps that Araújo and Yamal had left him. Dribbling into the space, Osula curved his run in the blindside of Marc Bernal and broke through, but solid defending from Gerard Martín prevented a clean strike at goal.

The more common route would be the fullback channel pass, going ahead of the winger, and Barnes/Elanga being better prepared to run onto. Despite this making progress, if Hall could get in space behind Yamal, then Newcastle had much better angles to attack the defensive line and cleaner forward passes too. Newcastle had the intensity and the spurts forward, but in their approach, once in the final third, wingers lost the threat by not releasing the ball earlier and only had Osula/the farsided attacker, sprinting into the box as crossing targets. Rarely was the cutback into one of the midfielders available, and Joan García made the claims as crosses would end up too close to the goalkeeper.

Barca settles but doesn’t sting

After the first quarter of the game, Barca began to circulate in possession as they got high up the field. The double pivot was key to alleviating pressure: Bernal may still be eighteen, but he already has the experience to offer clean passes from deep situations, even against Champions League-level opposition. The press resistance from Pedri was the game changer, not only capable of working with his back to goal but also baiting fouls onto him and competing in ground duels (winning six of the eight he competed in).

In possession, Barca were often aligned in a tilted back three: Araújo remained as the fullback but moved into slightly narrow positions when the ball was on the other side of the field. João Cancelo and Yamal were the width providers, on the left side of the field, Raphinha floated into positions both on the wing and dropped into central spots, whilst López was in the halfspaces, predominantly on the right. As a result, Barca often resembled a 3-2-5 formation, although Cancelo also played quite a conservative wide position so he was frequently in the second line. The one time he underlapped ahead of Raphinha, he returned the favor as Raphinha also underlapped to enter the box. His cutback was poked by Burn, but he almost poked it into his own net.

With Yamal on the pitch, it is no surprise that the onus of buildup moves was fixed down the right side of the Barca structure. Hall was effective in jumping towards Yamal, but there were a few exceptions. When Joelinton jumped onto Cubarsí, spaces on the ball side were created between the Newcastle lines. If Ramsey marked Bernal, López would be free and Sandro Tonali had to shift across to cover. If the double pivot was not in a position to receive the short pass, a Cubarsí line-breaking pass could still cause a problem, as Burn had to jump onto López. On the two occasions that this happened in the first period, Yamal was able to have access, cutting inside behind the midfield and on his favored left foot. The pass would go to Lewandowski or Raphinha on the opposite side, but creating chances was also a Barcelona problem, as well as that of the hosts.

13^th minute: Barca progressed through the Newcastle medium block. Newcastle increased the pressure on the back pass and Cubarsí dropped after his pass to Araújo. However, with Ramsey on Bernal and Joelinton having jumped onto Cubarsí, López was free and would return the ball to Yamal with the midfield of Newcastle being breached.

After a rocky opening, Barca had got themselves into a more comfortable environment. However, turning circulation into chances proved to be a difficult task. They did pull off a couple of clean exits out of Newcastle’s man-to-man but were reliant on press resistance and lateral works to find routes. This may have avoided costly mistakes in their own half, but came at a price, with players entering different positions in the middle third or a lack of diagonal routes through, especially between the base and the interiors in the attack.

When Yamal got the ball by the touchline, there were a number of occasions when the inside support was not available to him. He did switch up positions on the right, but when he collected the ball in more narrow positions, no overlapping run would stretch the Newcastle block further, and the Spaniard would find himself cutting onto his left foot and trying to play through several black-and-white shirts to find a teammate.

Towards the half-hour mark, Newcastle had started to show some threat once more. Working the pass back to the fullback in space, so he had time to pick out the forward, remained the key detail and it was the runs from Elanga that caused Barca the biggest problems. However, Newcastle ran a similar script where Elanga’s ball into the box was only aimed for Osula at the back post and often zipped past his intended target. The best chance came in the twenty-sixth minute when a high Trippier stretched the defensive line and picked out the run from Ramsey behind Martín. He played the pass to Elanga on the right, but Osula headed over the crossbar. Barca worked a decent opportunity of their own when Raphinha’s counterpressure kept possession in the final third for a second time. He found López off-balanced in the box, and a shot that was central to Ramsdale.

Transitions favor The Toon

The second half saw the tempo of the game increase as more transitions became available. Barca lost the control they had accomplished in the middle third, and this would only benefit Newcastle: whose man-to-man suppressed the clean exits available for García. Howe’s team left the goalkeeper to stop the shorter routes from forming, a successful approach as Barca’s attack was too distant to work off Lewandowski, who himself has not acted as an outlet to win aerial duels.

53^rd minute: Newcastle’s man-to-man approach against Barca. In their deep buildup, Garcia was the plus one against the man-to-man, but when he was involved in shorter circulation amongst the center-backs, Newcastle was not afraid to adapt. In this phase, Osula jumped onto the goalkeeper and Bernal made a predictable pass back to Cubarsí, who was now the free man. However, Joelinton anticipated and sprinted onto the center-back to force a long pass to be taken quickly. His ball landed towards Trippier, and Newcastle had regained possession.

As the game sped up, Newcastle attacked the defensive line in aforementioned fashion. Ten minutes into the second half and Hall would slip Osula through in the left halfspace again, this time a run in Cubarsí’s blindside. However, the Spaniard would recover, and the angle was too acute for a decent attempt at goal from the striker. A few minutes later, Howe’s team got into another excellent position when Elanga took advantage of an unfortunate slip from Martín. Having broken through with Barnes away from Araújo on the opposite channel, Elanga took a touch too many and the ideal ball across the box became inaccessible.

56^th minute: Buildup to Newcastle breaking through the Barca defensive line. A dummy from Elanga saw the ball travel from Trippier to Osula, and Martín would slip in the process. A creative move from Newcastle to create a fast break into the opposition half, but Elanga would take a touch too many and García gathered a tame, low ball into the box.

Attackers taking too much time or too many touches became an ongoing theme. With Newcastle committing more bodies, there were occasions when their own rest defense became compromised and Barca entered a three-versus-three. However, their execution of their own counters constantly saw them run out of steam by the time they entered the perimeter of the box. Substitutions from Howe tried to reinforce, Gordon came on upfront, whilst Jacob Murphy and Valentino Livramento replaced the right side. Flick took off Lewandowski after the Polish striker had his best chance of the game after a spontaneous long ball found Raphinha. However, Lewandowski could not get an optimal shot, sliding towards the pass, but his side-footed attempt bounced wide of the far post.

Overall, this was a second half which saw Howe’s team take a lot more shots and should have created better chances than they did. Towards the last quarter of the game, they thought they found their breakthrough. Newcastle created on the break with Murphy swapped with Ramsey, Tonali ahead of the ball and Livramento making a pass towards Gordon on the right touchline. The cutback was made to Murphy, who pushed the ball to Barnes and his shot smacked the post. Joelinton converted the rebound but was offside in the process.

Late drama

But on a crazy Champions League night full of goals, this was a game that would not fall short. Newcastle had gained enough momentum whilst keeping Barca quiet. This did not stop Araújo from desperately trying to attack the back post on a Barca cross, lingering in that corner of the field after play had restarted. By the time Newcastle worked the ball up the field, he was still not back in position and Howe’s team punished. Murphy made the one-two with Ramsey before his cross found Barnes at the back post. His shot was enough to beat García: 1-0 to the hosts with five minutes left to play.

Barca provided little pressure going into stoppage time, as Newcastle were still able to get into the high territory. Their final act of the game would see Barca gingerly approach the deep block, before an avenue arrived. Raphinha put the pass through to substitute Dani Olmo on the half-turn, who shimmied into the box and connected with the outstretched leg of Thiaw. A penalty would be the final kick of the game, and Yamal coolly converted into the bottom left.

Takeaways

A result that totally fell out of the grasp of Newcastle. After a lot of back-post attacks had gone bust, carrying a 1-0 win to Camp Nou would have been a significant result for Howe’s team. Now they must get a result away from home, a task which has proved to be difficult for them throughout the season. Barca will feel a lot more comfortable at a place where they have won every La Liga game this season, but if Newcastle can refine their offensive breaks to produce a better final ball, then this tie remains firmly in the balance.

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