Champions League: Newcastle’s sense of missed opportunity after late Barca blow

Yet there is a reason this Newcastle side have not kept a clean sheet since January.

Although Raphinha was 35 yards from goal in the final seconds of the game, substitute Joe Willock did not get close enough to the former Leeds United forward.

The Brazilian had the second he needed to look up and play a pass to Dani Olmo which, somehow, took a handful of flagging Newcastle players out of the game.

Olmo jinked inside the box and a panicked Malick Thiaw stuck out a leg, leaving referee Guida with no other choice as he pointed to the spot.

St James’ Park was stunned into silence for the first time all night.

“It was a great advert for us as football club on and off the pitch, but I’m just devastated for everybody that we couldn’t get the win that we all deserved,” Howe said.

“That’s football for you. It never plays to romance. It does what it does and now we have to dust ourselves down, take the positives from the performance and try and hit that on a more consistent basis.”

Newcastle felt a similar gut wrench on home soil after conceding stoppage-time winners against Liverpool and Arsenal earlier this season, and a late equaliser at the hands of Tottenham Hotspur.

Yet it was rather telling that those supporters who stayed behind on Tuesday night applauded their players off the field as they attempted to lift them.

This tie is far from over, even if it is going to take a herculean effort from Newcastle at the Nou Camp next week.

Howe felt in the “cold light of day” his side would see such positives after they showed they can compete with the very best.

Barnes was staying similarly upbeat.

“It will be a different sort of game at their place but we know what we can do and we know when we are at our level how well we can play,” he added.

“What a feeling it would have been to go there 1-0 up but we are level in the tie and all to play for.”