Lamine Yamal scored a penalty with the final kick of the game to deny Newcastle United a famous victory over Barcelona as the Blaugrana claimed a 1-1 draw from a pulsating first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at St James’ Park.

Newcastle went into the game understandably as heavy underdogs against the LaLiga leaders, but were also dreaming of a repeat of their 3-2 victory over the Blaugrana in 1997, in which Faustino Asprilla wrote his name into club legend with a hat-trick.

Asprilla flew in from Colombia to bear witnes to the spectacle on Tyneside, with the game a rematch of the opening game of the league phase of the competition, which saw Barca claim a 2-1 win.

This encounter followed a markedly similar pattern to that contest, with Newcastle dominating for long periods but struggling to take their chances in a game they started with leading Champions League goalscorer Anthony Gordon on the bench due to illness, William Osula leading the line in his stead.

Yet it looked as if they would claim a deserved victory when Harvey Barnes fired Newcastle in front in the 86th minute.

But there was a painful sting in the tail as Dani Olmo went over under a challenge from Malick Thiaw, with Yamal sending Aaron Ramsdale the wrong way to score a goal that makes Newcastle’s assignment at Camp Nou all the more difficult.

Newcastle fail to make most of first-half dominance

As they did in the opening league phase encounter, Newcastle made a fast and frantic start to the game amid a raucous atmosphere, with Anthony Elanga carrying a significant threat down the right.

Dan Burn almost wrote another famous chapter in his fairytale story with his boyhood club, but the centre-back failed to connect with what would have been a tap-in after Joan Garcia failed to deal with a Sandro Tonali header back into the box following a corner. 

Garcia produced a more convincing stop to turn round the post and prevent Elanga from capping a dart into the box with the opening goal, though the assistant flagged for offside against the Sweden international, with replays suggesting the call was tight.

But Barcelona repeated the feat from their previous visit in weathering the early Newcastle storm, and Burn was fortunate not to score an own goal when he turned a left-wing cross narrowly wide of his own left-hand post.

Yamal, excellently restricted by Lewis Hall, forced Ramsdale to turn a near-post effort behind, before Osula headed narrowly over from a well-weighted Elanga cross.

Elanga continued to pose Barcelona huge problems and would have had an assist had Osula been able to connect with another dangerous delivery across the face of goal, and Newcastle were further frustrated by their own profligacy in the second half.

Barcelona bailed out after Barnes opener

It was the Magpies who continued to make the running after the interval, though they were grateful to see Robert Lewandowski skew wide from close range, Raphinha having teed him up after Newcastle were caught cold on the counter.

Gordon was thrown into the fray soon after, but his introduction did not immediately yield the goal Newcastle craved.

Jacob Murphy blazed over on the volley from a brillliant Hall cross, and Newcastle thought they had taken the lead when Joelinton turned home after Barnes curled an effort against the post, but the Brazilian was clearly offside.

Jacob Ramsey then saw an effort deflected over the bar, but the goal Newcastle’s performance merited finally arrived when Murphy played a one-two with Ramsey and crossed to the far post for Barnes, whose effort proved strong for Garcia.

Newcastle, knowing the task ahead of them in Barcelona, pushed for a second, but they paid the price for their ambition.

The clock had ticked beyond the four minutes of allocated stoppage time when Olmo produced a superb piece of skill to jink past Thiaw in the area, and the Germany defender’s decision to stick out a leg left referee Marco Guida with no choice but to point to the spot and allow Yamal to score Barcelona’s second-latest goal in their Champions League history.