Article by Tudor Belivacă – Published Wednesday, March 18, 2026 9:57 p.m. / Updated Wednesday, March 18, 2026 10:03 p.m.
Newcastle disintegrated on the land of those from Barcelonascore 2-7 (3-8 overall), in the second leg of the round of 16 in the Champions League. The stadium in Catalunya was a nightmare for English coaches, and Eddie Howe, the technician of the “cotofenes”, was no exception.
Gary Neville was the last Englishman to come to the Nou Camp as an opponent and left with a 7-0 defeat when he was in charge of Valencia in 2016. 10 years on, Eddie Howe also left with 7 goals in the “quiver”, according to OPTA.
Nightmare at Camp Nou for English managers: the last two arrivals took 7
Newcastle also ticked another negative mark: they are only the second English team to concede seven goals in a European Champions Cup / Champions League match, joining Spurs after their 7-2 defeat by Bayern Munich in 2019.
From 1955 to the present, only three times has it happened that an English team has taken 8+ goals on aggregate, and two of them came this season: Chelsea in the “double” with PSG, score 2-8 on aggregate and Newcastle with Barcelona, score 3-8 on aggregate.
Although the evening was a nightmare for the “coçofenes”, Elanga achieved a rare feat, according to OPTA: he became only the second player to score a “double” at Camp Nou in the Champions League. The first was Dwight Yorke in 1998, a Manchester United player at the time. Elanga scored in the 15th and 28th minutes of the game.
