For Eddie Howe it was quite a statement. “Barcelona is the biggest game in this club’s history,” said Newcastle’s manager. “It’s massive.”
Given Howe usually seems allergic to exaggeration it was a surprising way to approach Tuesday night’s Champions League last 16 first leg with Hansi Flick’s side.
Admittedly, Newcastle have never gone this deep into Europe’s showpiece competition before but their past contains a big enough share of cup finals and title tilts to make that assertion somewhat arguable. Not that a Barcelona team made to work hard for a 2-1 win at St James’ Park in the competition’s league phase in September are treating their return to Tyneside lightly.
After Flick’s heavily rotated side beat Athletic Club 1-0 thanks to a goal from Lamine Yamal on Saturday, Barça’s squad flew to north-east England from Bilbao and checked in to Matfen Hall, a luxury country house hotel in Northumberland.
The idea was for La Liga’s leaders – they are four points ahead of second-placed Real Madrid – to decompress for a couple of days before a light training session on the St James’ Park pitch on Monday evening.
In contrast, Howe has been busy psyching his players up ever since the final whistle blew on Saturday night’s 3-1 home FA Cup defeat against Manchester City.
“There’s only 16 teams left [in the Champions League] and we’re one of them,” he said. “It’s an opportunity to grab a moment we may never get again. You never know what life brings tomorrow, let alone future seasons. We don’t want to waste that opportunity. We don’t want to kick ourselves or think: ‘What if?’ In my time here, just over four years, we have worked to get to this point. We want to try and get as close as we can to our very best.”
Doing so has involved Howe asking his players to channel their inner Colombian and conjure the spirit of 1997 when Kenny Dalglish’s Newcastle beat Barcelona 3-2 at St James’ Park courtesy of a Tino Asprilla hat-trick.
At the time, Howe was a 19-year-old Bournemouth defender. “I watched the game, but I don’t remember where I was,” he said. “I assume I was at home. My memory is hazy of that time of my life because I was very focused on my playing career. But you couldn’t not watch that game. It was on terrestrial television. It was one of those legendary games. You want people in future years to be talking about this team. Tino Asprilla gets the hat-trick, a couple of them from Keith Gillespie’s delivery on the right. I want our players to be talked about in the same way, 20, 30, 40 years later.”
In September, two second-half goals from Marcus Rashford secured Flick’s team maximum points on a night when Anthony Gordon’s 90th-minute consolation proved a footnote and, after Newcastle’s initial attacking storm, Pedri took control of midfield.
Now, with Flick debating whether or not to start Rashford after his recovery from injury, Howe is anxious to avoid a repeat of that game. “For me, it is the biggest game in our history and we have to have that mentality,” he said. “We have to rise to the occasion and embrace its size.”
He accepts that Newcastle, a modest 12th in the Premier League thanks to the most inconsistent of campaigns, are far from favourites. “I think the underdog role, in my time, here has helped us,” said Howe. “It’s when we’re in that position where we feel the odds are stacked against. Now we are going to have to use every psychological tool we can to help us because we are playing a very, very good team. An outstandingly coached team. A top team.”
If a potential battle between Newcastle’s left-back Lewis Hall and Lamine Yamal looks intriguing, Howe emphasised that it is only one of a series of significant subplots. “We need to win our individual duels, we need to win our tussles in those big moments,” said a manager who acknowledged leading his team into the last eight may represent the pinnacle of his Tyneside tenure.
“Yeah, possibly it would,” agreed Howe. “But I don’t care about myself and my record. I’m desperate for the club to break new ground and to keep going in this competition having worked so hard to get here. If there’s a time for us to be at our absolute best, it’s in these two games.”
Flick suspects Newcastle may well hit those heights and pose plenty of challenges in the process. “They have very fast players and outstanding players,” he said. “They’re dangerous in transition and I expect them to press us very high, man-to-man. We have to defend bravely. It won’t be easy but we have to find solutions. The Premier League is the world’s best league but we want to play like Barça. We want to show why our supporters are proud of us.”
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