PARIS: Lamine Yamal’s last-gasp penalty earned Barcelona a 1-1 draw at Newcastle United in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie on Tuesday, while Liverpool lost 1-0 to Galatasaray in Istanbul for the second time this season.
Atletico Madrid piled more misery on Tottenham Hotspur by winning 5-2 on a nightmare evening for visiting goalkeeper Antonin Kinsky, while Bayern Munich are all but through to the quarter-finals after thrashing Atalanta 6-1 in Italy.
At St James’ Park, Newcastle were heading for a night to savour when Harvey Barnes broke the deadlock on 86 minutes as he turned in a Jacob Murphy cross for his sixth Champions League goal this season.
However, Barcelona were awarded a penalty deep in injury time when Dani Olmo was tripped by Malick Thiaw and Yamal — a peripheral figure throughout the game — converted with the last kick of the match in the 96th minute.
That will make Newcastle’s task harder going to the Camp Nou for the return next Wednesday as they aim to reach the quarter-finals for the first time.
“There’s hope, of course there is. We believe in ourselves, we believe in our capabilities. I think we’ve shown that today,” said Newcastle manager Eddie Howe. “The moment at the end obviously taints that in a negative light, but I think it was one of our best performances.”
Barca boss Hansi Flick agreed the Spanish champions were lucky to leave Tyneside on level terms, but said he would have settled for 1-1 before kick-off due to the number of players he had unavailable.
Frenkie de Jong, Jules Kounde and Alejandro Balde were missing for the Catalan giants, while Eric Garcia was left on the bench as a precaution.
“With the ball we made not a good game. We lost too many balls, easy mistakes,” said Flick. “We have to do much better next week. With a 1-1, I was always happy. This is what what I can say.”
The winners of that tie look likely to face Atletico in the last eight, after Diego Simeone’s side tore apart Spurs at the Metropolitano, with Julian Alvarez scoring twice.
It was a horrible night for struggling Tottenham and an especially dreadful one for their Czech goalkeeper Kinsky, whose two previous appearances this season had come in the League Cup.
His slip when attempting to clear led to Marcos Llorente slotting in Atletico’s sixth-minute opener, and Antoine Griezmann then took advantage of a Micky van de Ven slip to grab another for the hosts.
The game was just 15 minutes old when Kinsky made a complete mess of an attempted first-time pass, gifting the ball to Alvarez for 3-0.
The 22-year-old Kinsky’s humiliation was compounded as he was then substituted by coach Igor Tudor.
“(The situation was) very rare. I’ve been coaching for 15 years, I’ve never done this. It was necessary to preserve the guy, preserve the team,” Tudor told reporters.
However the Croatian coach defended his decision to start Kinsky.
“It was, before the game, the right choice to do in the moment like we are. With pressure on Vicario, in another competition… ‘Tony’ is a very good goalkeeper. It was, for me, the right decision. After this, of course, it’s easy to say that it was not the right decision.”
Kinsky’s replacement Guglielmo Vicario also wasn’t able to stop the rampant Spanish side as Robin Le Normand’s header made it 4-0 midway through the first half.
Pedro Porro pulled one back, but Alvarez ran half the length of the pitch following a superb Griezmann lay-off to get Atletico’s fifth early in the second half.
Dominic Solanke fired in on 76 minutes to make it 5-2, perhaps giving Spurs a glimmer of hope for the return.
Griezmann, with a Copa del Rey final to come in April, is dreaming of silverware.
“I am very good here, enjoying myself a lot, what I do on the pitch speaks for itself,” Griezmann told Movistar. “We will see, but the idea is to go until the final and let others talk. (Playing in the Copa del Rey final) is my dream, my objective and I hope we can do something big.” Earlier, Liverpool lost by a single goal to Galatasaray, just as they had when the clubs met in Turkey in the league phase.
Mario Lemina scored the only goal for the Turkish league leaders, heading in from close range after Victor Osimhen nodded down a corner.
Osimhen had the ball in the net again in the second half, only for an offside decision to come to Liverpool’s rescue.
The Anfield side will need to do much better if they are to turn the tie around next week at home.
“We started the game really well,” said Slot. “We had three or four great moments. The biggest moment when Florian (Wirtz) came across almost an open goal, but he couldn’t finish that ball,” Slot said.
“We weren’t able to score and with their first attack it led to a corner and you have to give credit to the way when they get a chance. They played as if it’s the last chance of their lives. It’s already a difficult place to come to, but when you’re 1-0 down it makes it even harder.”.
Bayern confirmed their status as one of the leading contenders to win the competition by crushing Atalanta in Bergamo, with Michael Olise in inspired form.
Harry Kane played no part as Josip Stanisic tapped in an early opener and Olise applied a great finish to make it 2-0 midway through the first half.
Olise set up Serge Gnabry to make it 3-0 before half-time, and the latter also hit the bar late in the first half.
Nicolas Jackson got the fourth early in the second half, and the outstanding Olise curled in the fifth, his 15th of the season.
Jamal Musiala netted the sixth, and there is surely no way back for Atalanta, even if Mario Pasalic got one back in stoppage time.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany was very impressed with Olise’s performance and said that the Frenchman could become one of the world’s best footballers.
“He arrived with a mentality that gives him a chance to be one of the best players in the world,” Kompany told reporters. “I don’t want to compare the players, because they are not the same players at all.
“It is that obsession for detail. And Michael has that. It’s not enough. So I think we have to push him to do more. But he’s on a very good trajectory and it’s a pleasure to witness it.”
Published in Dawn, March 12th, 2026
