Banners are not always that easy to unfurl. Particularly on the sort of capriciously breezy March nights when sheeting emblazoned with the message “Budapest awaits me” refuses to be pulled taut and simply sags in the middle.
For a while before kick‑off it was easy to interpret the ongoing struggles of that banner’s owners to successfully hoist it in the Gallowgate End as emblematic of the travails awaiting Newcastle.
But then, at the very last minute, and to widespread surprise, the ends of that fabric were finally pulled sufficiently tight and the arms holding it somehow found the necessary strength to elevate it high above the sea of black and white clad bodies around them.
An underwhelming Barcelona would soon be similarly startled by the show of power and pace from a Newcastle team who lifted their game to the point where a famous victory was in touching distance.
Although Lamine Yamal’s equalising penalty in stoppage time makes Hansi Flick’s team favourites before the second leg in Catalonia next Wednesday, Eddie Howe’s side refused to conform to the assumption that their Champions League journey will, inevitably, end at Camp Nou.
Indeed right from the early exchanges when Will Osula and Anthony Elanga provoked chaos in the penalty area, it was just possible to see the road to the final in Budapest opening up and transporting Howe’s class of 2025‑26 all the way back to the city that was the venue for their European Fairs Cup triumph in 1969.
By the moment, late in the second half, when Harvey Barnes volleyed Jacob Murphy’s sublime cross beyond Joan García, Lamine Yamal had been thoroughly tamed by Lewis Hall and Newcastle seemed en route to their first clean sheet in 14 games in all competitions.
Then, as so often happens here these days, their defensive compass went awry, Dani Olmo cleverly encouraged Malick Thiaw to foul him in the area and Lamine Yamal’s penalty left Aaron Ramsdale helpless.
“I’m happy with 1-1,” Flick said. “It was not easy. I’m sure we’ll be much better next week but the atmosphere here was fantastic and it made it very tough. Newcastle are also so fast.”
Howe has certainly signed up to the football truism: “If you’ve got pace you’ve got a chance.”
As an accelerating Osula rampaged forward on the counter-attack it was possible to see his logic, and to appreciate why, with Anthony Gordon too weak to start following illness, Newcastle’s manager had preferred the wildly erratic 22-year-old to the combined £124m of supposed striking talent in Nick Woltemade and Yoane Wissa that warmed his bench.
The only problem was that, as with too many of his teammates, Osula’s final ball betrays his promise and a Barca side who had begun as if mentally still in the hot tubs at their luxury Northumberland pre‑match base were reprieved.
Despite the best efforts of Pedri to slow things down, Flick’s players never quite asserted the desired control. With Hall persistently second‑guessing Lamine Yamal, the prospect of a late spring break in Hungary remained on Howe’s horizon.
Tino Asprilla and Keith Gillespie, the heroes of Newcastle’s famous 3‑2 Champions League group‑stage win against Barcelona in 1997, were present to cheer on their old team. That pair could rightly point out they were considerably more incisive than their successors but with Elanga petrifying João Cancelo every time he ran down the home right, Flick’s players were never allowed to settle into any sort of passing groove.
The German had said he want his team to “play like Barça” and “show our quality” but Newcastle did not permit such creative licence. The only problem was that, as smartly as they generally defended, Howe’s players lacked attacking ruthlessness and high calibre improvisation and would, not for the first time, be let down by a late concentration lapse.
It enabled Lamine Yamal to score his 20th goal in 36 games this season and, in the process, complete Barcelona’s second rescue mission in two days.
On Monday night Flick’s sharp-eyed awareness had saved a small boy from being crushed against a metal barrier as fans who had congregated to watch the La Liga leaders leave St James’ Park following an evening training session on the pitch pushed forward en masse.
After spotting his distress Barcelona’s manager asked stewards to help him to safety and subsequently spent some time comforting the child.
It was the sort of intervention that the former Newcastle and Barca manager Sir Bobby Robson would have thoroughly approved of. Robson, whose statue in the precincts of St James’ proved the backdrop for countless selfies from fans of both clubs would also have applauded Hall’s coming of age display.
“It was an outstanding performance from Lewis,” Howe said. “But the draw’s a tough one to take. It’s unclear to me quite what happened for Barcelona’s goal but it shows if you switch off for a second they’ll punish you. We’re still very much in the tie though.”
The Newcastle standard may have temporarily sagged but do not discount the possibility of it flying high at Camp Nou next week. For now at least, the Budapest dream remains alive.
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