Eddie Howe makes rare Newcastle United critique as team hit self-destruct at Spotify Camp Nou

In many ways, the Barcelona side who stood in Newcastle United’s way of Champions League progression is also rebuilding. Financial meltdown put the club on the brink just five years ago, and Joan Laporta, their president newly re-elected for a second term in a second spell in charge, gambled with their future by keeping them relevant at the top of the European game in the present.

Hansi Flick, who has just signed a new contract at the club, is nurturing the latest generation of academy talent. Laporta’s ethos has always been to put La Masia first, and Pau Cubarsi, Lamine Yamal, the returning Gavi and Marc Bernal are the linchpin of this rescue mission.

Add imports like Pedri, Raphinha and Robert Lewandowski into the equation and it is easy to see Laporta’s vision, and the task that faced Eddie Howe and Newcastle on Wednesday evening.

Eddie Howe: 'If we'd defended the way we can, we'd have led at half-time'

Yet it wasn’t Yamal, Raphinha or Lewandowski who masterminded their downfall. While they were the executioners, Newcastle’s own mistakes led to a quite astonishing collapse in the second half, from what looked like a very promising position.

It was the third time the two sides had met this season, but crucially, the first away from St James’ Park. Barcelona have lost once at home all season, against Paris Saint-Germain, and even that was at a different stadium. Their monstrous goal record back at Spotify Camp Nou (39 scored in 12 games prior to kick off) meant Newcastle needed to be on their guard in the first 20 minutes.

The problem? Saturday’s 1-0 win at Chelsea was just the second time they’d kept a clean sheet since January.

Conceding to a Raphinha goal inside six minutes could have been curtains. But Newcastle’s own attacking gameplan felt like Barça’s kryptonite. Their high line played right into Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga’s hands; approaching half time, it was 2-2, with Elanga scoring twice for the visitors.

While both midfields were more or less steady, it felt like chaos at either end. But Newcastle were holding their own until Kieran Trippier fouled Raphinha for a penalty scored by Yamal on the stroke of half time. Howe called that the turning point.

“The big moment is the penalty,” he said after the game.

“As well as we played in the first half, when I thought we were outstanding in many aspects - it was really a great representation of how we want to play - there were too many individual errors within the performance to carry that great performance through.

“Really, if we had defended anywhere near the level we can, I think we would have been leading at half-time.”

He had a point, but while Yamal hadn’t been at his sparkling best - a week on from nestling comfortably in Lewis Hall’s pocket at St James’ Park - he’d still been involved in all three goals and the chief instigator of the match’s key moments. Keeping him quiet is extremely difficult; giving him an inch results in pretty harsh punishment. But worse was coming.

Howe pinpointed the psychological problems of conceding the penalty, but Fermin Lopez scoring Barcelona’s fourth goal six minutes after the break killed the game off, followed swiftly by three more in the next 20 minutes.

It would have been one thing if that dominance came from Flick’s team in full flow, but the most worrying aspect was how easily Newcastle had given the goals up. Not for the first time, individual errors and poor game management were their undoing; it could be argued six out of the seven conceded came from their own mistakes. That is unacceptable at any level, let alone the Champions League knockout stages.

This is likely to be Newcastle’s farewell to Europe’s premier club competition for at least a year. But it may not be that simple, such is the intensity of interest in a number of key players. Tino Livramento, Sandro Tonali, who limped off with a groin injury and Anthony Gordon are just three players who could be in demand. Without a strong end to the season, it could the the end of an era, too.

In time, perhaps the lasting memory of facing Barcelona will be that Newcastle competed well for much of their three-match battle.

“As much as today is a harsh scoreline on us and a painful experience, to see the players as well as they did in the first half and execute 90 per cent of what we wanted was a great feeling,” Howe added.

“I don’t think that all should be forgotten with the scoreline as difficult as that is for everyone to see.”

Now is the time for an inquest to understand how such a defeat could be so self inflicted.

But with Sunderland and the Tyne-Wear derby on Sunday, time is certainly of the essence.