Harvey Barnes believes Newcastle are primed for historic success against Barcelona after showing they are more than capable of living with them in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie.
Barnes’s 86th-minute goal for 1-0 at St James’ Park on Tuesday was cancelled out by Lamine Yamal’s penalty with the last kick of stoppage time. But Newcastle will travel to the Camp Nou for next Wednesday’s return with confidence, Barnes’s assertion that they were the better team brooking little argument and reflecting the mood inside their dressing room.
Inspired by a driving performance from Lewis Hall at left-back against Lamine Yamal, Newcastle dealt well with the pressure of their first Champions League knockout game. They restricted Barcelona to few clear chances and harried them to such an extent that their opponents had to work extremely hard to establish any kind of passing rhythm.
The statistics showed Barcelona managed nine shots, two on target, and had an expected goals number of 0.46 in open play. Although Newcastle did not create much in terms of big chances, they played on the front foot – especially early on and in the second half – and had plenty of possibilities. They had 16 shots, four on target. The challenge for them in the second leg will be to show more of a clinical edge.
“It is still wide open,” Barnes said. “It would have been amazing to go there with a 1-0 lead, but we’re level. We’ve got a chance to take the game to them and see where we’re at. We’re a team full of self-belief and there are so many positives to take. Next week we’ll be bang up for it. For a lot of the game we were the better side, we controlled big parts of it and looked really dangerous.
“We’ve shown it time and time again that when we play at our top, top level we can compete with these top teams. There’s been too many occasions this season where we’ve dropped below those levels and it’s cost us in the league, but in the Champions League we have hit our top form.”
Barnes, who has scored 14 goals this season, six in the Champions League, was asked how he and his teammates had addressed the issue of the lofty reputations of their Barcelona counterparts.
“You’ve got to respect the quality that they have but not respect them on the pitch,” he said. “We pressed them from minute one and tried to do that the whole game. You can’t let them come here, dictate the game and show their class. You’ve got to make it horrible and ugly for them. We limited their chances and limited their ball in and around the box and that’s credit to the whole team.”
