After battering Paris Saint-Germain on their home return to the Champions League, Newcastle United were brought back down to earth by Borussia Dortmund, who won 1-0 at St James’ Park.
Felix Nmecha put the Bundesliga team ahead after 45 minutes of a pulsating first half and Newcastle could never get level, losing Alexandra Isak to injury in the first half and Jacob Murphy in the second.
The result leaves the two teams on four points in group F after three games, with PSG two points clear at the top and AC Milan bottom on two points.
Here our writers analyse what happened and what it means for both teams.
Bellingham’s replacement Nmecha has his moment
Felix Nmecha has had a slow start. One of the complaints about him has been his tendency to play only in moments, or to tease his talent rather than run games with it.
This performance showed all his ability. He benefited from the way Dortmund set out to play and was able to break into space almost at will in the first half. He covered the pitch extremely well, on both sides of the ball.
But Nmecha is not solely a runner. He is not Jude Bellingham either, even if he has been damned with trying to replace him, but he has plenty of technical ability — and his goal showed that. A half-volley on a very wet pitch, from a pass drilled towards him; that was not easy.
He actually did little to find the space from which he scored; he ambled into position without Newcastle seeming to notice. But his goal capped a performance during which he showed what he can be as a No.8 and why it was that Dortmund spent nearly €30m to sign him from Wolfsburg. It had a bit of everything. The hard running and the fine finish, yes, but also little flecks of skill and, when needed, a physicality that Terzic’s team needed on a filthy night, a long way from home.
Nmecha has so far played without presence this season and without performing in a way that expressed his personality. That changed this evening.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Attacking Trippier caught out by Newcastle losing possession
Newcastle are not a team who make sloppy errors, especially not in dangerous areas. But with Kieran Trippier pushing up on the right, plus Fabian Schar and Jamaal Lascelles not the quickest centre-back pairing, Dortmund would have sensed the opportunity to hurt Newcastle in transition.
Particularly in the first half, Trippier had 48 touches of which 31 were in the Dortmund half. As defensively solid as we know Newcastle’s right back is, there was space in behind to be exploited.
A warning came after 10 minutes, with Sean Longstaff dispossessed in midfield. Cries rose out of the East Stand for a foul, but the challenge looked fair — and Newcastle relied on Nick Pope to clutch at parity.
His first save from Donyell Malen was instinctive, gambling on a direction and deflecting the ball off his hip — but the second was outstanding, with Niclas Fullkrug’s low drive somehow stopped by a rotating turbine of an arm.
The alarm was not heeded — or rather, Dortmund did well to isolate individual players with their tight midfield three. Gordon cut in from the left and Schlotterbeck’s intervention was perfectly timed. The centre-back moved upfield with the poise of a player wearing double the shirt number of his No 4, racing onto the edge of the box to cut back for Nmecha. Dortmund’s actual No 8 let the ball run across his body before firing past Pope.
Jacob Whitehead and Mark Carey
Isak limps off on return from injury
Alexander Isak’s frustration was palpable, a double-handed slap of the damp grass as he lay near the centre-circle.
The 24-year-old striker arrived at Dortmund as a callow 17-year-old, never afforded a proper opportunity as bigger names arrived in the Ruhr Valley. It took a loan spell at Willem II and a permanent transfer to Real Sociedad to reignite his career.
Of course everything is circular. Now at Newcastle, his return to the Champions League was heralded by a reunion with Dortmund – one that lasted barely 15 minutes. The flashes were brief — an acceleration, a ball slipped through to Anthony Gordon.
He had injured his groin during the closing minutes of the 2-2 draw with West Ham United on October 8, his finest performance of the season to date. That day, his two goals dragged Newcastle back into a game which their flat performance did not merit. Ruled out of international duty as a result, Eddie Howe was cautious enough to start Callum Wilson against Crystal Palace at the weekend.
Isak sat down before departing injured (Photo: Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Those measures did not prove enough. An innocuous coming together, and Isak was down clutching the same leg. Newcastle travel to Dortmund in less than two weeks. His return to the Westfalenstadion is now up in the air.
Wilson had two second-half opportunities, stabbing one at Gregor Kobel from close range, and flicking the other onto the bar. They were Newcastle’s best — and almost only — sights of goal, with Anthony Gordon’s strike at the very end deflecting onto the bar.
Wilson is generally considered Isak’s equal as a finisher — but there was nevertheless a tangible sense of “what ifs”.
Jacob Whitehead
Brandt absence makes Dortmund… more creative
Dortmund may be unbeaten in the Bundesliga this season, but they have not created chances at the expected rate. They have also scored fewer goals from open play than any other side in the division’s top-six and without Julian Brandt in their lineup, who is probably their best player and certainly among their most technically expressive, this game promised little to correct that trend.
Curiously, it seemed to benefit BVB, with Newcastle unsure of where the attacking thrust was coming from. Within fifteen minutes, Dortmund had created two excellent chances with decisive, vertical movement of the ball, and raiding parties breaking through the middle of the pitch. Malen was prominent, Fullkrug should have scored, Nmecha seemed more liberated in his support running than he has all season.
That may sound typical to English fans who still associate Dortmund with the Klopp-Tuchel brand of football, but that is not who they are anymore. Their playstyle is usually much slower and over the past few years has become more dependent upon individuals. Like Jadon Sancho, Erling Haaland, Jude Bellingham and, currently, Brandt.
The injury forced a dependency upon the system, it seemed, and a counter attacking structure — three players spread across the pitch, one or two players supporting behind in central positions — which Newcastle did not initially cope with. By the time Nmecha took one of the chances, at the end of a move typical of the first half, Terzic’s team might have already been a goal or two ahead.
And nobody saw that coming.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Injuries hinder impact of Howe’s substitutions
Newcastle fans rightfully arrived at St James’ Park full of confidence after their previous home clash in the Champions League. The momentum didn’t quite build in the same way against Dortmund, with some intelligent counter-attacking play from Edin Terzic’s side.
In the Newcastle dugout, things were busy — partly out of necessity, but partly in an attempt to find a spark in the game. Alexander Isak’s injury after 15 minutes did not help proceedings, but it took until the 65th minute for Eddie Howe to change system as well as personnel.
On came Jacob Murphy and Sandro Tonali for Joelinton and Sean Longstaff, which meant Newcastle shifted to a less familiar 4-2-3-1 system in order to get more bodies around Callum Wilson — with Miguel Almiron drifting into a central area to spark more creative threat with his relentless energy. However, that plan lasted all of approximately 90 seconds.
A nasty-looking shoulder injury to Murphy meant further changes were required, with replacement Joe Willock meaning Newcastle quickly shifted back to a 4-3-3. Yes, the weather conditions didn’t help, but Howe’s side were unable to find that same magic that saw them squash PSG at the start of the month — despite their best efforts to affect the game on a blustery evening on Tyneside.
Mark Carey
The night Schlotterbeck needed
No question who authored the best piece of play of the night: Nico Schlotterbeck.
His contribution to the Dortmund goal was the perfect demonstration of modern, progressive defending. First in the way that he robbed Anthony Gordon of the ball in his own half, then in the ambition he showed in making the supporting run forward to create the overlap that led to Nmecha’s goal.
Schlotterbeck has not had an easy time since moving from Freiburg. For club or country. His slender frame and technical style of defending has at times left him open to criticism. Some of the mistakes he’s made have also damaged his self-belief and inhibited him.
What a moment this could prove to be, then, because of all the players expected to wilt at St James’ Park, he would surely have been top of the list. Not so; he was magnificent. The goal was the highlight, but Schlotterbeck was impressive resolute alongside Mats Hummels and dealt with all the physicality that Newcastle could muster.
Dortmund needed this win. Schlotterbeck needed this night. Both will be better for it.
Sebastian Stafford-Bloor
Where does this leave group F?
Finely balanced. Paris Saint-Germain top the group on six points after an 3-0 win over AC Milan, but their frailties were laid bare at St James’ Park three weeks ago.
But this is why Group F was the one circled after the draw — every side has the potential to embarrass another.
Dortmund sit ahead of Newcastle on head-to-head record, both teams on four points, with AC Milan bottom on two.
Crucially, Newcastle have now played two of their home matches, and face successive away trips to Dortmund and Paris. It already seems as if Newcastle will need to win their final game, at home to Milan, to be sure of progress.
Jacob Whitehead
(Top image: Robbie Jay Barratt – AMA/Getty Images)
