Florian Lejeune points the way for Newcastle United against Barcelona | OneFootball

One of numerous on a budget inspirational Rafa Benitez signings, Florian Lejeune was excellent for Newcastle United.

The French defender having to recover from an injury only minutes into his debut, after a disgraceful challenge from Harry Kane left Florian Lejuene in agony. It should have been an automatic red card for Kane but of course he stayed on the pitch, whilst Lejeune didn’t.

Anyway, Florian Lejeune eventually recovered and played a significant part in Rafa Benitez’ Newcastle United having the seventh best defensive record in each of the two Premier League seasons (2017/18 and 2018/19) they (Lejeune and Benitez) were together at NUFC.

Mike Ashley then forced out Rafa Benitez and further tormented Newcastle United fans by bringing in Steve Bruce, Florian Lejeune then made only four more Premier League starts for United before sold to Alaves in July 2021, less than three months before the new owners came in and replaced Mike Ashley, then replaced Brucey with the genius that is Eddie Howe.

The classy Florian Lejeune declaring this via his Twitter account after leaving Newcastle United – 22 July 2021:

“I wanted to thank Newcastle United for all the time spent at the club.

“I met wonderful people who always have been there for me.

“I’m facing a new challenge and I couldn’t be more thankful to all the [Newcastle United] fans, teammates and club’s staff.

“I wish you all the best for the upcoming season.”

A year after joining Alaves in a permanent move, Florian Lejeune moved to La Liga minnows Rayo Vallecano.

Now aged 34, the central defender is now in his fourth season at the club and has started all four 2025/26 La Liga games so far.

A lot has been made of Barcelona winning 6-0 on Sunday against Valencia. The visitors are no longer a major force in Spanish football, a bottom half of the table team and going in 2-0 down at half-time, they collapsed in from of the 5,862 Barcelona crowd (Their stadium still isn’t ready…).

Barcelona are a very good team and this is anything but an easy match tonight for Newcastle United.

However, the way that much of the media and indeed many NUFC fans are going on, you would think this was peak Lionel Messi Barcelona.

Their best player (Lamine Yamal) is missing and Hansi Flick is furious about it. As for the players we may well see tonight, I would say they are generally good to very good but not the heights of previous great Barcelona side.

Indeed, many of these players we know well from the Premier League, such as Rashford (loan from Man U), Christensen (free transfer from Chelsea), Torres (bought from Man City) and Raphinha (bought from Leeds).

Barcelona have been hit by serious cash issues and FFP (financial fair play) in recent seasons, only around £110m spent on transfer fees these past three years. Lewandowski has been a stellar striker over the years but now aged 37 he isn’t exactly at his peak.

If Newcastle United play to the levels they are capable of, I think we win tonight.

As I said, Barcelona won 6-0 against Valencia on Sunday but what about the La Liga match before that?

They were up against 34 year old Florian Lejeune and his Rayo Vallecano teammates, this small club has a record transfer spend on a player of £6m and indeed, has spent that much on transfer fees over the course of the last two years. Yet they more than matched Barcelona, drawing 1-1 and indeed Barcelona’s star man Lamine Yamal was playing that day and actually scored their goal.

The La Liga game before that, Barcelona were 2-0 down at just promoted and very small club, Levante. It needed an added time goal for a Barcelona side (including Lamine Yamal) to grab an undeserved 3-2 away victory.

We aren’t playing the name of Barcelona tonight, Newcastle United are facing the Barca players of today, less their star man Lamine Yamal.