Visitors were underwhelming in the face of Newcastle’s power and pace and Eddie Howe’s men can still hope to reach the last eight
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.
