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4 days ago
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Newcastle cannot complain they were not warned. Eddie Howe had cautioned his players that Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was “as good as ever’ and would need to be “controlled” but ultimately they proved powerless to prevent the 36-year-old transforming both the match and Marseille’s Champions League ambitions.
While Aubameyang fulfilled the soaring expectations of a raucously loud audience at this stupendously designed, wonderfully atmospheric arena, Howe’s team started well but ended up mugged in the manner of naive tourists who had wandered into the wrong arrondissement of this beguiling yet sometimes brutal city.
Although they retain genuine hopes of European advancement, their persistent travel sickness dictated unwanted playoff involvement may yet be required.
Harvey Barnes is far too talented to have spent so much of his Newcastle career warming the bench but here Eddie Howe hit upon a solution as to how to force two into one and accommodate both his left wingers, Barnes and Anthony Gordon, in the starting XI.
It involved that duo morphing into a front two in a 3-5-2 formation that contained no room for Newcastle’s £70m Germany striker Nick Woltemade. Yet if Howe was happy to rotate Woltemade, Sandro Tonali enjoys virtually undroppable status on Tyneside.
Sure enough, the Italy midfielder soon proved his worth by accelerating forward and breaking the Marseille lines before watching Gordon nudge his cutback in the direction of Barnes. All that remained was for Newcastle’s man of the moment to score his third goal in two games by lashing a left foot shot beyond Geronimo Rulli from around 10 yards.
Barnes’s double had undone Manchester City in the Premier League last Saturday and now he had Roberto De Zerbi’s team firmly on the back foot as Newcastle initially pressed their hosts high and hard.
Howe’s only problem was that his players could not possibly sustain such intensity and, almost incrementally, Marseille began dominating first half possession.
They also started creating chances. One of the more notable involved Mason Greenwood, the Manchester United outcast turned Ligue 1’s leading scorer, playing in Aubameyang. The former Arsenal striker, now 36, controlled the ball on his chest before swivelling imperiously and forcing Nick Pope into a decent save.
Greenwood was facing Premier League opposition for the first time since leaving Old Trafford and his increasingly clever attacking link play represented a key reason why Newcastle’s lead always seemed fragile.
Suddenly Howe’s team were playing on the counterattack but that was not necessarily an entirely bad thing for an XI possessing such petrifying pace on the break. As if to prove that point, Gordon showed Argentina’s Leonardo Balderdi and his co-defenders a clean pair of heels before forcing Rulli into a fine save following Joe Willock’s through ball.
If Marseille had, briefly, entertained hopes of a visiting surrender they were being disabused. When, shortly afterwards, Dan Burn, albeit unintentionally, trod on Rulli’s skull in the fall out from a long throw it only seemed to emphasise that Newcastle were not minded to turn into soft touches.
Instead, as the goalkeeper, trudged off for half-time with his head swathed in white bandages his wounds threatened to match the damage the scoreline threatened to inflict on De Zerbi’s hopes of progression to the knockout phase.
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At that juncture Marseille’s hopes were being damaged by an impressive performance from Willock. Howe’s decision to recall the midfielder came as something of a surprise but it was being fully vindicated.
Not that he or his teammates would prove exactly flawless. An extraordinary opening to the second half from De Zerbi’s side ruthlessly exposed Newcastle’s defensive fault-lines as the Stade Vélodrome dared to dream of springtime European involvement once more.
First, just 18 seconds into the new half, Aubameyang connected with a long ball and Pope became stranded as he inexplicably rushed off his line. It allowed Aubameyang to round the visiting keeper and shoot expertly into an empty net but the extreme tightness of the angle underlined the sheer, and undimmed, quality of his finishing ability.
If that was a stunning goal, Aubameyang was not quite done yet. Having taking the briefest of breathers while Barnes saw another “goal” disallowed, correctly, for offside, the veteran resumed his rescue mission.
This time Aubameyang received some constructive help from Timothy Weah – son of George – down the right. More specifically he made the most of Weah’s cross courtesy of an instinctive near post half volley past Pope.
Although Willock’s drive subsequently tested Rulli’s reflexes, Newcastle were seriously up against it. Two goals in five minutes from a striker threatening to redefine evergreen had thoroughly dissected Howe’s rearguard.
Newcastle’s manager responded by switching that department to a back four as he reinforced midfield and introduced Lewis Miley, Lewis Hall, Anthony Elanaga, Jacob Ramsey and Woltemade from the bench.
That raft of substitutions failed to upstage Aubameyang, with the Gabon striker rightly ambling off to a standing ovation.
