Newcastle United’s last stand in the Champions League
NEWCASTLE United? In the Champions League?
Yes, we’ve definitely been there and got the T-shirt - although it’s a bit faded these days.
It’s 15 years and counting since the Magpies’ last stand in European football’s elite competition.
And much has changed at St James’ Park since United were challenging at the top end of the Premier League and going toe-to-toe with the biggest guns on the continent.
Having taken the scalps of Feyenoord, Juventus, Dynamo Kiev and Bayer Leverkusen, the Toon found themselves still battling in the second phase of the Champions League.
But there was a major challenge at hand. A week after 12,000 fans travelled to watch their heroes draw 2-2 with Inter Milan at the San Siro, United needed to win to stay in the competition and progress into the last eight.
On this night in 2003, Barcelona rolled into St James’ Park.
But if Tino Asprilla’s exploits against the Spanish giants six years earlier were still fresh in black and white memories, things wouldn’t quite go to plan for United this time.
Sir Bobby Robson’s powerful team - sitting third in the Premier League and featuring the likes of Alan Shearer, Craig Bellamy and Nobby Solano - would fall victim to secondhalf goals from Patrick Kluivert and Thiago Motta.
Barca weren’t yet the all-conquering, Messi-inspired fantasy football version, but on the night, a 51,883 crowd enjoyed an early glimpse of two sublimely gifted players who would be integral to the Catalans’ later domination.
In midfield, we witnessed 23-year-old Xavi and, coming on as a 67th-minute substitute, 18-year-old Andres Iniesta who would be denied a goal by Toon keeper Shay Given in a last-minute one-on-one.
‘United bow out with heads held high’ ran the Chronicle’s headline on the match report.
We told how the team had generally competed well, but also how Craig Bellamy had fired EIGHT shots off target, and had one touched on to the post by Barca keeper Victor Valdes.
Meanwhile, if a Titus Bramble mistake had let in Kluivert - a future United acquisition - for the first goal, how different might things have been had injured Jonathan Woodgate been on the pitch and not sat watching from the stands?
Afterwards, skipper Alan Shearer summed up the Magpies’ 2002-03 European adventure, telling the Chronicle: “I feel we have given a good account of ourselves.
“We had a dodgy start with no goals and no points from our first three games. But the longer the competition went on, the better we seemed to get.
“And it really has been a great experience, especially for our young players - and it will stand us all in good stead.
“That’s why we want more next season and that’s why we have got to make sure we are on our mettle for the next eight games in the Premier League.
“We have got to make sure we are in the Champions League next season.”
Sadly, it was not to be. There would be more European action over the next few seasons, but Newcastle United haven’t dined at football’s top table since the night Xavi and Iniesta came to Toon.