Barça's U10 team kicked off their UEFA Youth League campaign with a 3–2 win away to Newcastle. Pol Planas’ side did most of the damage before half-time, thanks to a strike from Xavi Espart and a quick-fire double from Óscar Gistau, though they were made to sweat after the break.

All Barça to start

Wearing orange at Whitley Park, Barça settled quickly. Espart opened the scoring on 24 minutes, finishing a cut-back after Gistau’s persistence in the box. The forward then took centre stage, smashing into the top corner on 44 minutes before adding a clever lob in stoppage time for a 3–0 lead at the interval.

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Geordies hit back

Newcastle hit back straight after the restart, Shahar drilling home a free-kick. The blaugrana still carved out chances, with Espart hitting the post, but the hosts struck again late on when Wooster fired in from the edge of the area to set up a nervy finish.

Despite injuries forcing changes, Barça dug in to repel the final onslaught and secured a hard-earned first three points of their European campaign.

MATCH STATS

Newcastle United: 2
FC Barcelona: 3

Newcastle United: George Mair; Leo Shahar, Henry Johnson, Logan Watts (Aaron Epia 59'), Dylan Charlton; Rory Finneran (Seungsoo Park 69'), Scott Bailey, Anthony Munda (Kacey Wooster 69'); Kyle Fitzgerald (Mohamed Waddani 69'), Sean Neave & Joe Brayson (Samuel Alabi 51').

FC Barcelona: Eder Aller, Guillem Víctor, Alexis Olmedo (Álex Campos 65'), Andrés Cuenca (Baba Kourouma 65'), Pol Bernabéu; Xavi Espart (Orian Goren 65'), Pedro Villar, Pedro Rodríguez; Sama Nomoko (Oriol Pallàs 46'), Óscar Gistau (Adrián Guerrero 74') & Shane Kluivert.

Goals: 0-1, Xavi Espart (min. 24); 0-2, Oscar Gistau (min. 45); 0-3, Oscar Gistau (min. 45+3; 1-3, Leo Shahar (min. 50); 2-3, Kacey Wooster (min. 81)

Referee: Mihaly Kapraly. Yellows for Xavi Espart, Andrés Cuenca & Pedro Rodríguez (Barça) and Bailey, Neave & Charlton (Newcastle).

Força Barça