Newcastle United 1-2 FC Barcelona, UEFA Champions League: Rashford Brace Gives Barca Three Points

Marcus Rashford scored his first two competitive goals for Barcelona as Hansi Flick's team opened their Champions League campaign with a 2-1 win at Newcastle United.

The Blaugrana were without teenage sensation Lamine Yamal for their trip to St James' Park, but Manchester United loanee Rashford made his mark after being selected to start alongside Robert Lewandowski and Raphinha.

After Newcastle missed a pair of great first-half chances, Rashford planted a header into the bottom-left corner just before the hour mark, before getting a thunderous second. Anthony Gordon teed up a grandstand finish in the 90th minute, but Barca survived seven minutes of stoppage time to ensure a winning start to the league phase.

Newcastle started brightly in front of a raucous home crowd, and they should have gone ahead in the sixth minute. Anthony Elanga burst down the right and teed up Gordon, only for his fellow forward to completely miskick in front of goal.

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Another electric run from Elanga created Newcastle's second big chance as he fed Harvey Barnes in the 24th minute, but Joan Garcia made a strong save with his right foot.

Having weathered that early storm, Barca grew into the contest as the first half went on, with Lewandowski and Raphinha firing off several blocked or wayward efforts.

Joelinton flicked a header just wide as Eddie Howe's hosts also started the second half quickly, but Barca went ahead in the 58th minute. Jules Kounde was given too much time to cross from the right, and Rashford escaped the attention of Fabian Schar to nod home.

Rashford's sensational second goal came nine minutes later, as he jinked to the right side of the D before unleashing a swerving effort that crashed in off the underside of the bar.

Newcastle threw on €90m (£69m) signing Nick Woltemade as they looked for a route back into the game, and the German was involved in the flowing move that resulted in Gordon turning Jacob Murphy's cross home with stoppage time looming.

However, Barca navigated the finale with relative ease, even going close to a third goal as Nick Pope denied substitute Dani Olmo.

Data Debrief: Rashford replicates Kane

Had Yamal not been sidelined with a groin issue, Rashford would likely not have started Thursday's game.

But Yamal's absence allowed Rashford the opportunity to become just the fifth player to score twice on their Champions League debut for Barca, after Txiki Begiristain (1993), Cristian Tello (2012), Lewandowski (2022) and Joao Felix (2023).

Rashford is also just the second Englishman to score on his Champions League debut for a non-English club when facing a Premier League team, with Harry Kane doing so for Bayern Munich against Man Utd in September 2023.

Rashford and Kane are also the only two English players to score two goals in a Champions League game for a non-English club against a Premier League side, with Kane doing so against Chelsea on Wednesday.