Wayne Rooney insists Newcastle United were right to chase a second goal against Barcelona (Prime Video)
Wayne Rooney disagreed with Alan Shearer’s plea for Newcastle United to defend their lead in their 1-1 draw with Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night.
Eddie Howe’s side delivered an impressive performance against Barcelona at St James’ Park and appeared to be heading into next Wednesday’s second leg with a 1-0 advantage following Harvey Barnes’ goal in the 86th minute.
But Barcelona were awarded a penalty in the sixth minute of injury time which was scored by Lamine Yamal.
After Barnes’ opener, Newcastle continued to push for a second goal but Shearer believes Eddie Howe should have urged his players to protect their advantage.
Speaking after the game, Shearer told Prime Sport: ‘They’ve done so many things right tonight, they defended really, really well, they stopped that front three, they created chances but they didn’t take them.
‘But when the big one came along they did and I’m thinking protect the game and take to Barcelona what you’ve got.
Harvey Barnes gave Newcastle United a late lead against Barcelona (Getty)
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‘Even when Eddie was telling Dan Burn to go forward with four or five minutes left I was thinking, ‘maybe not, just sit on your lead’. I don’t know, I thought it was pretty naïve what they were trying to do.
‘It would’ve made it a tad easier going there with 1-0 because they’re a very different outfit in their own stadium, as Newcastle our in our own stadium with the way they press forward. Barcelona do that very, very well. Newcastle have missed a huge opportunity going there with a 1-0 lead.’
Rooney, however, believes Newcastle were right to push for a second goal to take to Barcelona next week.
‘Firstly I thought Newcastle were outstanding, I thought tactically Eddie Howe got his tactics spot on and Newcastle were the better team and could have won by one or two goals,’ Rooney said.
‘But at this level if you don’t take your chances then you always leave the opposition the opportunity to score and Barcelona did that.
Lamine Yamal’s penalty in injury time rescued a draw for Barcelona (Getty)
‘I disagree, I think you [Newcastle] should have went for it. Because 1-0 is a very good score line but to go there and try to get the second goal I think you might need that second goal.
‘Sometimes you pay the price for that. But I think it was a great performance and you should go there with confidence after this performance tonight because it was fantastic.
‘I think they could have taken a bit more care with the ball around Barcelona’s penalty box, the timing of the pass, the weight of the past, that next step to get to the top level I think they just missed in the end and that’s the only thing that let Newcastle down.
‘Knowing you have to go to Barcelona and you have to win the game to go through is a different feeling and they will feel a little bit of deflation but I think what they’ve done tonight is shown they belong, they can compete at this level and Barcelona will be thinking they weren’t expecting that.
‘It will be a different game next week I think Newcastle will have to stay front-footed, try and replicate this performance, I know that’s difficult, but if they can get anything like tonight’s performance I think they’re in with a chance.’
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