Sir John Hall was happy last night. Having led Newcastle from the liquidator's door to the foot of the Champions' League money mountain, Hall and 35,000 raucous Geordies watched Newcastle plant a black and white flag near the summit. A Faustino Asprilla hat-trick - his goals coming in the 22nd, 30th and 49th minutes - threatened to sweep Barcelona away before Luis Enrique and Luis Figo restored respectability to the scoreline.
Both managers sprang selection surprises. Kenny Dalglish, one suspects, held no public training session on Tuesday because to do so would have revealed that Alessandro Pistone had not recovered from the niggling neck injury he sustained last Saturday. Someone suggested it was through watching Wimbledon's Efan Ekoku flash by, but the effect was to force Newcastle into a flat back four.
For Barcelona there was no place for Christoph Dugarry, Emmanuel Amunike starting wide on the left with Rivaldo moving inside. And within the opening minute a sparkling piece of footwork from the Brazilian left John Barnes on his backside and illustrated why Rivaldo cost £17 million.
The moment emphasised the pre-match confidence of the Catalan side and yet with only 11 minutes gone Newcastle had wasted two excellent opportunities. On both occasions the chances fell to Jon Dahl Tomasson, the 21-year-old Dane whose rejection of Barcelona in favour of Newcastle was seen by some as a signal of changing times.
Unfortunately for Newcastle the young man has been tentative in front of goal since he arrived, and he was again. The first came through John Barnes, with Tomasson shooting meekly, the second from a deep cross from Keith Gillespie; Tomasson elected to bring the ball down on a thigh when the centre demanded a firm header.
Thankfully for Tomasson, though, his next involvement initiated the opening goal. Sliding the ball beyond Barcelona's central defence Tomasson's pass invited Ruud Hesp to leave his line and challenge the rushing Asprilla. Hesp, however, never got to the ball and caught Asprilla as he followed through. The balding Italian referee said penalty and Asprilla made no mistake.
The noise that greeted the goal shook the St James' Park foundations and by the half-hour it increased. Collecting a Steve Watson free-kick, Gillespie - like Tomasson a nervous performer this season - took on Sergi with hitherto unseen conviction.
Gillespie got by him and delivered an exquisite centre to which Asprilla rose magnificently to meet the ball with his forehead like a latter-day Malcolm MacDonald. Suddenly Barcelona were two down and with David Batty ruling the midfield little was being seen of the wonder boy Ivan De La Pena.
Rivaldo, similarly, had gone missing, lost in the undertow of a rising black-and-white tide. A snatched shot by him from 20 yards immediately after half-time lifted Catalan hearts, but their mood was not to last.
Gillespie's first act of the second half was to run at Sergi once again. And again Gillespie was successful, charging 60 yards from inside his own half before swinging in another beautiful cross. The surprise was that Nadal, Celades and Michael Reiziger had not learnt a lesson and allowed Asprilla another free jump and header. The Colombian placed the ball perfectly into the net for his hat-trick.
Astonishingly, Asprilla almost scored a fourth barely two minutes later. It would have been a carbon copy of his third, but this time Hesp saved.
Thereafter Newcastle defended too deeply and after finger-tipping one Nadal effort away, Shay Given was beaten by Luis Enrique who chested in Luis Figo's pass. In a nervous last 15 minutes Rivaldo struck the bar from a free-kick and Batty cleared off the line.
Something had to give, and two minutes from time Luis Figo, after sloppy work by Given, made the score 3-2.
