Eddie Howe had never attended a Champions League match until last month but anyone who expected Newcastle’s manager to display a novice’s grasp of elite European tactical intricacies was soon disabused as his side raced to the top of Group F.
Yet after a draw in Milan and a home dismantling of Paris Saint-Germain Howe and his players finally met their match in Edin Terzic’s intelligently incisive Borussia Dortmund. On a night when torrential rain cascaded down from the Tyneside skies, a fine first-half winner from the excellent Felix Nmecha ensured that, with three games to go, qualification for the knockout stages has been thrown wide open.
Although Newcastle hit the bar twice, Howe, who tried and failed to sign Nmecha in the summer, had few complaints. “We created a lot of late pressure but we weren’t at our absolute best, we were technically a bit loose in the first half, our touch wasn’t perfect,” he conceded. “It’s a top quality group and it was always going to be tight. It’s fine margins. But we’re still in there, still fighting.”
It was so wet at St James’ Park that giant paper towel rolls had to be pinched from the toilets to mop up the pools of water collecting on the plastic press box seats and creating rivulets along the work benches. Small wonder the usual replay monitors were removed due to an electrocution risk.
Happily the playing surface was in rather better shape, creating a slick, speedy, end-to-end contest with both goalkeepers swiftly called to arms. No sooner had Nick Pope reacted superbly to repel Donyell Malen’s shot after Marius Wolf’s stellar pass bisected Newcastle’s backline than Gregor Kobel showed off similarly sharp reflexes to keep Anthony Gordon’s curler out.
Pope has been in magnificent form and he made a stunning double save to deny first the immensely impressive Malen and then Niclas Füllkrug. Sean Longstaff, too, has shone in recent weeks but a midfielder being hyped as a potential England newcomer was rescued by his goalkeeper after being dispossessed by Emre Can in the preamble to that drama.
Not to be upstaged entirely, Kobel promptly did well to prevent Gordon from answering back by opening the scoring but Dortmund had established themselves as the superior, more incisive passing, side and clearly possessed the knack of deconstructing Newcastle’s press before counterattacking with alacrity.
Terzic’s poised, streetwise, team certainly did not resemble the group stragglers whose pre-match tally of a solitary point ensured this was something of a make-or-break fixture. Instead, as Dortmund posed Jamaal Lascelles and co more first-half problems than Paris Saint-Germain – thrashed 4-1 here – had done in an entire 90 minutes, while proving a particular menace at set pieces, it was easy to see why they came so agonisingly close to winning last season’s Bundesliga.
As bravely and wholeheartedly as Newcastle hurled themselves into a seemingly never ending series of blocks and challenges, Dortmund’s ball manipulation was so good that Can, Marcel Sabitzer and Nmecha ensured that the home midfield was never remotely in control.
Yet as good as Terzic’s team looked they could hardly be described as exactly being in total charge either. With the visiting cause hampered when Can hobbled off, a newly emboldened Newcastle poured forward only to come undone by Nmecha’s fabulous counterattacking goal on the brink of half-time.
When Nico Schlotterbeck pinched possession from Gordon thanks to a high calibre, if high risk, tackle he liberated a rapidly breaking Marco Reus before racing upfield to receive the return pass and pull the ball back for Nmecha. Pope was duly punished by a first-time sidefoot finish no goalkeeper could have been expected to save.
Even diehard Newcastle fans would have struggled to argue that the lead was undeserved. Indeed locals had turned so unusually subdued that it was the yellow clad Germans perched high in the Leazes End who generated the greatest noise amid the downpour.
Geordie optimism was reignited when Callum Wilson, on for the injured Alexander Isak, stretched Kobel as Howe pondered and readied his substitutes.
Sandro Tonali, expected to banned for 10 months on Thursday for breaches of Italian betting regulations, sat on a bench also including Joe Willock, fit again following a six month injury induced lay off.
While Tonali swiftly replaced Longstaff, Joelinton made way for Jacob Murphy. A suspected dislocated shoulder meant Murphy lasted a matter of minutes before Willock ran on but, even though Wilson and Gordon subsequently hit the bar, neither he, the tantalisingly influential Tonali or anyone else could quite make the desired difference for a thoroughly soaked Howe.
“Newcastle pressed high and took risks but we made the right decisions,” said Terzic. “And Felix Nmecha is a brilliant player; he had a fantastic game.”
