Newcastle lose at Dortmund as another harsh lesson leaves uphill task in Champions League
Borussia Dortmund 2-0 Newcastle United (Fullkrug 26′, Brandt 79′)
SIGNAL IDUNA PARK — Ailing Newcastle United are on life support in their Champions League group of death.
In a mirror image of their European campaign so far, they had moments at a bouncing, boisterous Signal Iduna Park, but their more seasoned opponents always seemed to have the momentum.
Eddie Howe’s side have been progressing at lightning pace over the last two years, but exposure to the Champions League gold standard has illustrated that they’ve still got a way to go.
So far this has been a campaign of harsh defeats and even harsher lessons for Eddie Howe and his European greenhorns. Scratch their mind-bending night against Paris Saint-Germain out of the equation and it has been their Champions League story – a team making a big noise domestically looking strangely subdued on the biggest stage in the game.
The frustration that will follow Howe out of the Ruhr is that this patched-up version of Newcastle are a pastiche of the side that he had hoped to roll out in this group of heavyweights.
The Magpies couldn’t even fill their bench at Borussia Dortmund and most of those that Howe could call upon were hardly game changers. He included two goalkeepers and academy kids Lucas De Bolle and Ben Parkinson, names that would have left even Newcastle die-hards scrambling for Google for research purposes. Lewis Miley, aged 17 with just 45 minutes in the League Cup on his CV before Tuesday night, looked like a veritable veteran.
Afterwards a deflated Howe admitted that Newcastle lacked their trademark intensity. He picks his words carefully, so it was a loaded admission when he said they lacked quality and “weren’t at their best”.
He was right to say that on their best day even this injury-depleted version of Newcastle would have had enough to emerge from this game with a point or more to cling to.
As it is, they lost because they ceded the big moments. Joelinton has been colossal for Newcastle since Howe repurposed him in midfield but his two misses – particularly the second-half header that he screwed wide when Tino Livramento teed him up with a wonderful cross – were desperate.
What a time this was for the Brazilian’s composure to desert him. In the first half Newcastle found themselves flailing a bit when Fabian Schar sprang a defensive wall of bright yellow with a lofted pass, but Joelinton couldn’t pull the ball down with a clear sight of goal.
It is those fine margins that Newcastle have been on the wrong side of over two bruising encounters against Dortmund.
Credit to Edin Terzic, a manager who had a brief spell as a coach at West Ham a couple of years back. He hailed it as a “big achievement” to do the double on Newcastle but it was the way his team were able to negate Newcastle’s strengths in both games by flooding the midfield with craft, legs and graft which edged both games.
Not many Premier League managers have got the best of Howe twice in a season, but he has. You wonder whether a few more will now borrow his blueprint to exploit a Newcastle side that are starting to look stretched.
Borussia Dortmund are also the first team to exploit Jamaal Lascelles’ weaknesses and puncture Kieran Trippier’s trademark composure. Without that defensive foundation, Newcastle looked diminished and had it not been for Nick Pope’s flawless reflexes they would have been ahead before Niclas Fullkrug reacted first to Marcel Sabitzer’s smart pull-back.
With the exception of the four goals against PSG, Newcastle are yet to score in this competition and Callum Wilson had just nine touches before being withdrawn with tightness in his hamstring.
Anthony Gordon – in the red zone after pouring everything into overhauling Arsenal – was named on the bench and they missed his energy early on.
The second, terminal goal for Newcastle came after Trippier’s free-kick failed to beat the first man. They had committed too many men forward, Borussia Dortmund broke, and Julian Brandt swept past Pope. It was typical of the sort of carelessness which is likely to cost them progression in this competition.
