Game week one of the new Champions League campaign saw the Spanish title holders Barcelona travel to the North of England to play Newcastle. St James Park was a velodrome of noise, with the Geordies desperate for a famous victory. However, it was Marcus Rashford who stole the headlines, scoring twice to hand Barcelona a 2-1 victory and an ideal start to their European journey.

The England International broke the deadlock in the 58^th minute with a bullet header that flew past Nick Pope. Less than 10 minutes later, he produced another moment of brilliance, gliding past Sandro Tonali before unleashing a long-ranged effort that smashed the crossbar and bulged to silence the crowd. 

Speaking to TNT Sports after the game, Marcus Rashford reflected on both his performance and his start to life in Spain.

On adapting to life in Catalonia and Spanish football, he said:

“It’s going good, obviously learning a lot. It’s a new way of football, but I’m enjoying it all and it’s making me a better player and that’s what I’m here to do. I’m here to help the team win but to also improve and be the best I can.”

Playing for Barcelona, he stated how special of an opportunity it is:

“Honestly, it’s an amazing experience, I’ve always been a huge admirer of Barcelona and most people my age watched them since we were younger. Amazing football and amazing players, we just want to win as much as possible.”

Reflecting on the Newcastle game, Rashford said:

“I think the first half was very cagey, but we tried to control the game in spells and it’s very difficult to play against this team and I’m really pleased we managed to win.”

Rashford was asked about the process behind his second goal:

“I just felt in a split second there was a gap, and I could see the far post and I thought just try and get a shot off and the defender in front tried to block it so I just tried to lift it a little bit. When you’re going away from goal, it’s difficult to generate the power if u keep it low so I thought just let me try and aim high and I knew when I caught it, it would take the keeper some doing to stop it.”

His performance was more than just the two goals, Rashford topped all players for attempts on goal (6), touches in the opponent’s box (10) and successful dribbles (5). It truly was the complete Man of the Match performance. 

Looking ahead, he is confident in the squad and excited for more games to come:

“I’m full of excitement, I’m very motivated and determined, the quality we have in the team, that excites me alone. It’s refreshing to play with these guys, they are so young, they play with such confidence, such understanding of the game. 

Here isn’t an easy place to come and especially to play your own way, I won here a few times where we not necessarily played the way we wanted to play but today I think we held good account of ourselves, defended well and walked away with the win.”

He also had a lot of praise for his new coach Hansi Flick:

“He’s a top man manager and he will be delighted today definitely with the 3 points, but also the confidence the team showed, believing in the way that we played. Every goal kick, pressing so high, we still tried to play from the back, it didn’t work every time, but we still tried but there were times when we got out and I think that we looked like a positive team and with the quality that we have, we can always make things happen.”

Lastly, the forward expressed their desires for success in this competition:

“It’s to win it, nothing else is on our minds, we know how tough the competition is, it’s going to be really tough. Last year they almost got there, so it’s just this year improving and trying to go one step more.”