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Moment of madness costs bipolar Mags - Marseille 2-1 Newcastle

by Olly Hawkins · 25 November 2025, 22:14
Moment of madness costs bipolar Mags - Marseille 2-1 Newcastle

Another away game, another collapse from 1-0 up and a Champions League defeat that ends our run of three-straight wins in Europe.

Harvey Barnes put us 1-0 up just six minutes in, continuing his great form with an early strike that we fully deserved in a first-half display full of running, fast counter attacks and some resolute defending.

But, just as we saw in recent away games at Brentford and West Ham, a costly error from Nick Pope sparked a Newcastle collapse and Marseille comeback, turning the game on its head in five disastrous second half minutes that we never really recovered from.

A massive chance missed to boost our bid for a top eight finish, especially when two of our final three Champions League games see us travel to Bayer Leverkusen (who just won at Man City tonight) and PSG.

Eddie Howe has made THREE changes from Saturday, seeing Dan Burn, Joe Willock and Anthony Gordon replace Lewis Hall, Joelinton and Nick Woltemade.

Newcastle XI: Pope - Murphy, Thiaw, Schar, Burn, Livramento - Willock, Bruno, Tonali, Barnes - Gordon.

Subs: Thompson, Ramsdale, Hall, Botman, Joelinton, Elanga, Woltemade, A.Murphy, Ramsey, Miley, Alabi.

Marseille XI: Rulli - Weah, Pavard, Balerdi (c), Emerson - Hojbjerg, Vermeeren - Greenwood, Bakola, Paixao - Aubameyang.

We made an outstanding start, going man-for-man, pressing Marseille and going close through Thiaw as his header was cleared off the line by Hojbjerg before Barnes gave us a deserved lead just six minutes in!

Tonali's run and cross was met by Gordon, and his effort fell the way of Barnes in the box, who made no mistake and fired into the corner. The dream start that sent over 3,000 Mags wild, making it four goals in three games for the former Leicester winger and seven for the season.


Willock's running was causing problems and got Marseille's Balerdi in the book early on, although Marseille did go close on the 20-minute mark as Aubameyang's quick touch and strike forced Pope into his first save.

We were defending well and looked dangerous on the break, with Tonali and Willock both having low shots saved either side of a slack Bruno through ball that almost put Barnes clean through. Another big chance to go through on goal was then wasted by Murphy, who passed up a huge chance to slip Gordon in behind 10 minutes before the break.

Marseille were enjoying much more of the ball (72%) at this point, but the space was there for us to break on a Marseille back line that didn't look quick enough to handle Gordon, Willock or Barnes if we could just get that final ball right.

An embarrassing dive from Bakola then saw the Marseille youngster booked in a shameless attempt to con the referee, although we were lucky to remain ahead seconds later as Greenwood's superb cross for Aubameyang was somehow headed wide by the former Arsenal striker. A BIG let off just over five minutes before the break.

Next we had Thiaw to thank, not for the first time this season, as Tonali's awful giveaway handed another clear opening to Aubameyang. However, just as he looked to go around Schar, the big German recovered superbly with a saving tackle.

An end-to-end game full of action and yellow cards then threw up another chance, this time at the right end as Gordon broke free and saw a shot across goal well-saved by Rulli. Another nearly moment arrived for Gordon in the last seconds of first half stoppage time, as a lung-busting run and burst of pace from Willock ended with a cross that was inches away from finding our number 10.

It was the best 45 minutes we'd seen from Willock in a LONG time, Barnes was sharp again and Thiaw imperious at the back. Sadly, however, our fast start would quickly turn sour.

The second half couldn't have started any worse and it was all on Pope. Within a minute of the restart, he came flying out into no man's land, needlessly inviting Aubameyang to go wide and shoot into an empty goal. A superb finish, yes, but a horrendous error from Pope that handed Marseille a huge lift in a game we had been in control of. And it would soon get worse.


Minutes later, it was 2-1 and we hadn't even reached the 50-minute mark. Livramento was beaten by Weah, his cross found Aubameyang and the striker's near post effort flew past Pope after finding space between Burn and Schar.

There was still goals for us here, highlighted by a powerful Willock strike that almost handed us an immediate equaliser. But we had to wake up at the other end or this was going to be game over before we knew it.

Howe reacted with a trio of changes with half an hour to play, with Hall, Miley and Elanga replacing Livramento, Schar and Murphy in a move that saw us revert to a back four, where Miley dropped in at right-back in Trippier and Krafth's absence.

Woltemade and Ramsey then came on as Howe rolled the dice again, taking off the impressive Willock and frustrating Gordon. Two attacking moves, but it was hard to work out who was playing where over the final 15 minutes as our shape suffered from the five second half changes.

A chance then came Elanga's way after good work from Woltemade, although that was blocked and the resulting corner was another nearly moment as Thiaw's knock down was not capitalisd on by Burn. Barnes was next to go close, only for his curling effort to curl just wide of Rulli's far post with just over five minutes remaining.

A painful end to a game we threw away in five shocking second half minutes, as we huffed and puffed in stoppage time but found no way past a Marseille side who'd been gifted a win in a game where we totally let slip of our first half dominance.

At times tonight we looked like a side who were turning the corner, as that first half was really encouraging, but the start to that second half was shambolic and a killer blow that ultimately cost us.

Next up, a trip to Everton on Saturday and absolutely vital that we deliver a 90-minute performance on the road.

Keep the faith. Howay the lads.

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