Newcastle 1-2 Barcelona

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After a valiant effort at a fired up St James' Park on (for some reason) Thursday night, Newcastle came up short against the genuine world class quality of Barcelona.

An incredible atmosphere, bolstered by the efforts of Wor Flags, saw Newcastle come haring out of the blocks, the front three of Barnes, Gordon and Elanga giving the Barcelona back line no peace at all.

And had one of Gordon or Barnes taken their chances superbly laid on by the dangerous Elanga in the first half, we might have been able to build on that.

As it was, Barca started to suffocate the game, and Marcus Rashford of all people looked lively against Kieran Trippier, getting away from him several times before shooting wide in (I thought) trademark style.

Half time came and Newcastle could justifiably claimed to have edged it, but as Barcelona started to create chances in the second half, Fabian Schar took a Rashford shot square in the face and quite clearly was struggling.

A few minutes later he inexplicably lost Rashford in the box who was able to nod home a cross.

This led to a quadruple change, including the removal of Schar, with Nick Woltemade reintroduced after his slightly surprising benching, but moments later Rashford absolutely thwacked one in off the bar from miles away.

Howe later said we could have defended both goals better, and we should always be looking to improve, but for me this was one of those goals where you just have to hold your hands up and admire the hit.

From that point on we never really felt like getting back into it, and even when Anthony Gordon swept home a beautifully worked goal to halve the deficit in the 90th minute, with seven added on, it felt like a consolation.

But we went toe to toe with one of the world's best teams, and while a PSG repeat would have been truly magical, unfortunately Barca were just a level above us.

We can't win 'em all, but it's still good to have these occasions back at SJP.