Our return to the Champions League didn’t quite go as planned on Thursday night, as we were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona.

A second-half brace from Marcus Rashford, which included the best goal of the competition so far for the Englishman’s second, proved devastating to what was otherwise a good performance from the team.

Anthony Gordon grabbed a late consolation goal as we pushed for an equaliser, but it’s a tough loss to take against arguably the best team in the world today.

Here’s what Eddie Howe had to say after the game, as our focus returns to the Premier League and Sunday’s game against Bournemouth.

On overall performance: good and bad

For much of the first hour, we were the better side compared to Hansi Flick’s Spanish champions. It took some excellent goalkeeping from Joan Garcia to keep things at 0-0, and both Barcelona goals really came from out of nowhere.

But it’s becoming a similar story so far this season where we either aren’t creating enough opportunities, or just aren’t being efficient enough with the ones we do create.

Howe feels the first goal was vital and has criticised our defending for that, but did feel we pressed well to force early mistakes; just couldn’t capitalise:

“Disappointing. We were really in the game. I never felt we were out of it. I’m disappointed we didn’t score the first goal. That was crucial.”

“We had the chances to do it. It was a whole-hearted gutsy display but maybe lacking the quality to get us the win.”

“It was a good performance but not a great one and to beat Barcelona it has to be a great one. We had two great chances but the first goal was important.”

“We tried to make it difficult for Barcelona to settle into the game and wanted to win the ball high up when they played out from the back. So I was pretty pleased with that.”

“But the first goal is a big moment. We don’t stop the cross and then we don’t mark well enough in the box, and concede.

“Then when you are chasing the game against them it becomes very difficult, as they exploit gaps that maybe you wouldn’t have left previously.”

On Marcus Rashford’s game-winning goals

Kieran Trippier was winning the battle against Marcus Rashford at St James’ Park almost right until the moment the loanee’s header beat Nick Pope to make it 1-0.

And minutes later, it was 2-0 to the visitors, with Burn and Tonali failing to close down Rashford outside the box, allowing him to unleash a simply unbeatable strike that no goalkeeper on the planet could save. Despite the quality of both goals, Howe still believe we could have done more to stop them.

“I think we could have defended better against them, especially the first goal.

“The second goal was an incredible finish, but we’re disappointed with how the ball reached him.”

On influence of Champions League spectacle

Previously, we’ve faced criticism for letting the occasion and grandeur of the big games get to us and affect our performance.

We saw it in the 2023 Carabao Cup final, before we expertly bounced back for the 2025 final at Wembley. And a similar case is already being made that we’re letting ‘Champions League nights’ get to our heads too much.

But Howe has played down the idea that the pre-match hype about being back playing European football detracted from today’s performance.

“I don’t think the hype was a negative. It was always going to be an exciting one for our supporters and the effort and endeavour was there from the lads.

“We could have done better but ultimately we will analyse it and try to improve.”