Newcastle United drew the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie against Barcelona, 1-1 at St James’ Park.
Eddie Howe’s side were aggressive from the start, looking to put Barcelona under pressure and take the game to them with their physical presence.
Newcastle took 16 shots in the game, despite having 46% of the ball, while Barcelona only managed nine shots from their share of possession.
In this article, we’ll cover
Newcastle’s aggressive press
Howe made a clever adjustment to his pressing structure, as he often opts to jump his left side of the pitch in order to shift into a man for man press.
However, due to the threat of Lamine Yamal, Howe opted to switch his press and jump his players down the opposite side in order to achieve that man for man pressure.
This saw Anthony Elanga jumping to pressure Gerard Martin, Kieran Trippier jumping up to Joao Cancelo and Malick Thiaw tracking Raphinha.
This gave Newcastle good coverage against Barcelona’s 4-2 build up shape, but did leave a 4v4 against in the last line.
Sandro Tonali had the job of tracking Fermin Lopez who would drop in to provide a passing option, make runs in beyond to create space for others and even rotate with Yamal in order to help the Spaniard create seperation from Lewis Hall.
Howe’s side were able to effectively force Barcelona into a more physical game state than they desired, pressing with intent and out running the Spanish giants.
Lewis Hall as pressure release valve
Another clever tactic deployed in the game by Howe was his usage of Hall in possession, looking to bait the Barcelona press and outplay from full-back zones.
Newcastle’s 4-2 structure in build up had good spacing between the players, creating lots of 1v1s across the pitch, especially inside their own half.
This allowed Hall to utilise his best qualities, evading pressure with his press resistance, baiting Barcelona to jump and then winning his 1v1 against Yamal to collapse their press, looking to release runners in behind.
Newcastle’s front three, along with their midfielders, would look to time their runs in behind once Hall beat the press, narrowly missing out on a number of occasions to profit from these scenarios.
Hall completed both of his dribble attempts (take-ons), making 11 carries in the match and a whopping five chances created.
Lamine Yamal sucker punch
The Yamal vs Hall matchup was the main story of the match, with many eyes on the Spanish phenom up against England’s potential left-back at the 2026 World Cup.
Over the entire game, Hall had Yamal’s number, stopping the 18-year-old from completing a single successful dribble, playing his part in his 20 possession losses and just one shot from open play.
However, Yamal did have the decisive moment at the end of the game, converting from the spot to make it 1-1, giving Barcelona a slight edge heading back to Camp Nou next week.
Yamal vs Hall could be the one to watch yet again next week, but both sides will be up for it, looking to make it through to the quarter-final of the Champions League.