Lamine Yamal’s last-gasp penalty on Tuesday earned Barcelona a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last-16 tie, while Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray in Istanbul for the second time this season.
Atletico Madrid piled more misery on Tottenham Hotspur by winning 5-2 on a nightmare evening for visiting goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, while Bayern Munich are all but through to the quarter-finals after thrashing Atalanta BC 6-1 in Italy.
At St James’ Park, Newcastle were heading for a night to savor when Harvey Barnes broke the deadlock on 86 minutes as he turned in a Jacob Murphy cross for his sixth Champions League goal this season.
Photo: Reuters
However, Barcelona were awarded a penalty deep in stoppage-time when Dani Olmo was tripped by Malick Thiaw and Yamal — a peripheral figure throughout the game — converted with the last kick of the match in the 96th minute.
That would make Newcastle’s task harder going to the Camp Nou for the return on Wednesday next week as they aim to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
“There’s hope, of course there is. We believe in ourselves, we believe in our capabilities. I think we’ve shown that today,” Newcastle head coach Eddie Howe said.
Photo: AFP
The winners of that tie look likely to face Atletico in the last eight, after Diego Simeone’s side tore apart Spurs at the Metropolitano, with Julian Alvarez scoring twice.
It was a horrible night for struggling Tottenham and an especially dreadful one for their Czech goalkeeper Kinsky, whose two previous appearances this season had come in the EFL Cup.
His slip when attempting to clear led to Marcos Llorente slotting in Atletico’s sixth-minute opener, and Antoine Griezmann then took advantage of a Micky van de Ven slip to grab another for the hosts.
The game was just 15 minutes old when Kinsky made a complete mess of an attempted first-time pass, gifting the ball to Alvarez for 3-0.
The 22-year-old Kinsky’s humiliation was compounded as he was then substituted by coach Igor Tudor, but replacement Guglielmo Vicario could not keep out Robin Le Normand’s header to make it 4-0 midway through the first half.
Pedro Porro pulled one back, but Alvarez ran half the length of the pitch following a superb Griezmann layoff to get Atletico’s fifth early in the second half.
Dominic Solanke fired in on 76 minutes to make it 5-2, perhaps giving Spurs a glimmer of hope for the return.
However, it is hard to see how they arrest a slump which has seen them lose all four games under new coach Tudor, and six on the bounce overall.
“Unfortunately, it happened in this big game, these mistakes. So, we paid for this start of the game, it was too much for us,” said Tudor, who added that he needed to “preserve” the devastated Kinsky by taking him off.
“I’ve been coaching for 15 years, I’ve never done this. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team,” he said.
Earlier, Liverpool lost by a single goal to Galatasaray, just as they had when the clubs met in Turkey in the league phase.
Mario Lemina scored the only goal for the Turkish league leaders, heading in from close range after Victor Osinhen nodded down a corner.
Osimhen had the ball in the net again in the second half, only for an offside decision to come to Liverpool’s rescue.
The Anfield side would need to do much better if they are to turn the tie around next week at home.
“It’s already a difficult place to come to, but when you’re 1-0 down, it makes it even harder,” Liverpool head coach Arne Slot said.
Bayern confirmed their status as one of the leading contenders to win the competition by crushing Atalanta in Bergamo with Michael Olise in inspired form.
Harry Kane played no part as Josip Stanisic tapped in an early opener and Olise applied a great finish to make it 2-0 midway through the first half.
Olise set up Serge Gnabry to make it 3-0 before halftime, and the latter also hit the bar late in the first half.
Nicolas Jackson got the fourth early in the second half, and the outstanding Olise curled in the fifth, his 15th of the season.
Jamal Musiala netted the sixth, and there is surely no way back for Atalanta, even if Mario Pasalic got one back in stoppage-time.
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