Newcastle United’s first Champions League fixture of the season sees them host none other than Spanish giants Barcelona.
By Neel Shelat
Newcastle looking to relive the highs of 1997
Newcastle United have not faced Barcelona for over two decades, but they met them four times in a five-year span around the turn of the century. The Magpies lost the majority of those meetings, but did record one famous win at St James’ Park.
That match was also their Champions League curtain-raiser for the 1997/98 campaign, when Kenny Dalglish was in charge of the team. A Faustino Asprilla hat-trick put Newcastle in a commanding position, leaving the visitors with nothing to show for late goals from Luis Enrique and Luís Figo.
New strikers for Newcastle
Interestingly, Asprilla’s mid-season departure rather derailed Newcastle’s 1997/98 campaign, so they will be keen to avoid a similar outcome after losing their star striker this summer. The Magpies have reinvested the British record fee they earned for Alexander Isak’s move to Liverpool in two new strikers, namely Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa.
The main upside of these transfers is that they give Eddie Howe more room for tactical flexibility with different profiles of forwards to pick from. Woltemade scored on his Premier League debut against Wolves last weekend, but Wissa would likely have been a better option for a more open game such as this one. The DR Congo international is unavailable after suffering a knee injury with his national team, so the German forward will surely start again.
Battle of two intense high presses
An intense and intriguing tactical battle is to be expected in this match. Both teams will likely press high, so that should make for quite an open game.
Newcastle have toned down their pressing intensity on the whole over the last couple of years, but they certainly still have the capability to get in their opponents’ faces. With what should be a raucous crowd on such a big night, they could well go for it.
Barcelona’s high line under Hansi Flick has been the talk of town since last season. It did serve them well as far as generating high turnovers was concerned, but they also had a pretty leaky defence in the Champions League.
How the Blaugrana go about things in Flick’s second season will be interesting to follow, and this match should give us a good initial indication.
Lamine Yamal likely to remain absent for Barcelona
Flick voiced his displeasure about the Spanish national team’s handling of Lamine Yamal’s injury after the last international break, as he will now have to make do without his star winger for a few matches.
The German tactician deployed summer signing Roony Bardghji on the right wing in the weekend’s league game but took him off at half-time for Raphinha, who went on to bag a brace. The Brazilian international was Barça’s top-scorer in the Champions League last season, so he will surely start. The fitness of Robert Lewandowski will likely determine the striker pick, while Marcus Rashford should be expected to complete the front three.
Prediction
The quality and tactical approaches of both sides should result in a close and hard-fought contest. Barcelona might just have enough of an edge to come away with a narrow win.
(Cover image from IMAGO)
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