Newcastle 1 Barcelona 2 – These stats don’t lie | OneFootball

It ended Newcastle 1 Barcelona 2.

The opening round of Champions League games seeing Eddie Howe’s side defeated at St James’ Park.

The reigning La Liga champions and a Champions League semi-finalist last season, taking all three points.

At the final whistle, all that counts if of course the scoreline.

What do the stats say though?

The key underlying stats from Newcastle 1 Barcelona 2 (Stats via BBC Sport)

Possession was Newcastle 36% Barcelona 64%

Total shots were Newcastle 10 Barcelona 19

Shots on target were Newcastle 6 Barcelona 5

Corners were Newcastle 6 Barcelona 4

So what should we make of these stats?

I have just checked back on the Newcastle 4 PSGA 1 match, just under two years ago.

In that famous victory, Newcastle United had 27% possession, 12 shots, 8 shots on target and 1 corner.

PSG had 73% possession, 11 shots, 2 shots on target and 8 corners.

For additional interest/info – These are the two NUFC teams and subs used…

Newcastle team v PSG:

Pope, Trippier, Lascelles, Schar, Burn, Longstaff, Bruno, Tonali (Anderson 65), Almiron (Murphy 71), Isak, Gordon (Targett 90+3)

Newcastle team v Barcelona:

Pope, Trippier (Botman 76), Schar (Thiaw 63), Burn, Livramento, Tonali, Bruno, Joelinton (Willock 62), Barnes (Woltemade 62), Gordon, Elanga (Murphy 63)

Comparing and contrasting the PSG and Barcelona matches at St James’ Park

I think that against these kind of teams, with a lot of high quality technical players, we were always going to see PSG and Barcelona dominant in possession. However, in both matches the overwhelming majority of that possession was in non-threatening areas. A lot in the non-threatening two thirds of the pitch, not in the last third, definitely not a case of cutting NUFC open repeatedly and creating loads of clear chances inside the penalty area.

My belief is that there is a lot of rewriting of history after last night’s final whistle, the final scoreline (especially when United only scored in the 90th minute) used to try and back up the idea, that when you add in the possession stats, that Barcelona were somehow by far the better team. I think they played a lot of nice keeping the ball in the easier two thirds of the pitch but then so did PSG, even more so!

However, just like against PSG, I think it was Newcastle United who narrowly were the more threatening team against Barcelona, carving out more and better clear chances, exerting more pressure close to the Barcelona goal than the visitors did at the other end.

Newcastle United were easily the better team in the first half last night. At the break, Newcastle had taken four corners compared to only one for Barcelona, whilst the visitors hadn’t managed a single effort on target (how often are Barcelona restricted like that?). At the other end Anthony Gordon completely missed the ball when only ten yards out and Elanga cut it back, whilst Barnes had a great chance at the back post that was well saved. Barcelona had some nice moves at times but Newcastle United had more that first half, on top of those clear carved out chances.

It was just before the hour mark that Rashford scored his header and I might be wrong but I think that was Barca’s first effort on target. Things then predictably opened up and became more open, as Eddie Howe made four changes and United had to chase the game, take more risks. Which helped allow Barcelona some efforts on target at last.

One of those was the winning goal and it was a world class one. It was from yards outside the box and hit hard, no chance for Nick Pope and it dipped a little at the last moment and went in off the underside of the bar. That was the margin, a few inches, between a second killer goal or bouncing back off the woodwork.

Barcelona had more shots last night (19 v 10) but only five of them on target. This was largely due to the fact they were almost all from distance and/or trying to score with a load of defenders in front of them. In contrast, Newcastle United had more efforts on target (six) than Barca BUT from far fewer overall shots (ten). This largely due to the fact that Newcastle’s shots were generally from far closer in.

Newcastle United with 50% more corners (6 v 4) than Barcelona as well. Fact is, you can only get corners when you get at least relatively close to the opposition goal!

United only managed one corner to PSG’s eight, back in October 2023.

I can’t understand why anybody would think that on overall balance of play last night, as evidenced by the stats above, that Newcastle United weren’t worth at least a point.

Marcus Rashford pulled off a great header and a world class long-range effort to actually win the game. However, what I am talking about is the overall match, how did Newcastle United play?

Barcelona scored with two great finishes and really that was the difference between the two teams on the night. Against PSG, United scored with four of their twelve shots, only one of ten last night though against Barcelona.

Two years ago Newcastle were ruthless and clinical with their finishing, not so last night, unlike Rashford.

I think as well that credit to Barcelona, they defended better than PSG did in 2023. Whilst at the other end, they were great finishes from the Man U loan player but both could have been prevented with better defending. Schar took a step back which gave Rashford his chance of a great header, then Burn gifted the ball to him and Rashford went past Tonali and then did it again to get himself into a better shooting position.

As well as United’s finishing last night, I think there were also a lot of other situations where they either made the wrong decision, such as delaying a pass too long or making the wrong one, or the pass was poorly executed.

You saw the way Barcelona were wasting time as the final whistle closed in and the way they celebrated when it was blown.

If anybody really believes this was an easy win, a comfortable stroll for Barcelona, you are badly mistaken.

Barcelona knew they had been in a very tough match and it was those two top quality finishes that enabled them to win, rather than the point they in reality deserved on overall play.