Newcastle were the last side to beat Barcelona in a Champions League group game opener and Faustino Asprilla scored a hat-trick in epic win after ‘partying with lots of women’ in Colombia

Barcelona lost their opening Champions League group game for the first time in 24 years.

The club were beaten by Bayern Munich 3-0 at home, bringing an end to the run of 22 game, including 17 wins and five draws, which was born out of a memorable loss to Newcastle.

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That night, on 17 September, 1997 is one fans will not forget in a hurry. Then, the club stunned a side featuring Rivaldo, Luis Figo and Luis Enrique by beating them 3-2 inside a very atmospheric St James’ Park.

But Newcastle had Faustino Asprilla and the hugely popular Colombian put them all to the sword with a memorable Champions League hat-trick, which was even more impressive considering he had been enjoying himself in South America shortly before the game..

“I’d been away on international duty, but instead of going back to Newcastle I went to my ranch and had a party with lots of girls,” he told FourFourTwo magazine in 2017. “[Manager] Kenny Dalglish was furious,” he added.

Nevertheless, he found himself in the starting XI and Barca could neither contain him or Keith Gillespie. “He was one of the fastest players I’d ever seen,” he told UEFA of the Northern Irishman who supplied two of his goals – the other being a penalty.

“He wouldn’t cut back and look up, he’d get to the byline and cross it in.”

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“I will never forget the Newcastle fans singing my name. I didn’t understand them as it was in Geordie, but I could still tell that they were really happy!”

Of the hat-trick, team-mate Philippe Albert, who played that night, said: “When you see how easy the three goals were for Faustino Asprilla you can only admire him.”

Signed from Parma in 1996 for £6.7m, Asprilla scored 18 goals in 63 games for the club before returning to the Italian club in 1998.

He admitted to not knowing much about the place he arrived in wearing a fur coat at a snowy St James’ Park – Colombia is slightly warmer than the north east of England in January – but one thing struck him.

“The women were divine… haha! I had… well, I don’t know how many girlfriends I had in Newcastle.”

But fans were more concerned with how he handled himself on the pitch and he didn’t disappoint them.

Clearly, though, he left a mark on Barca considering their record in the games since.