Newcastle have the talent to be more than a sideshow

As Sir Bobby Robson gave his final press conference of the competition, there was almost something symbolic in the way the Champions' League logo fell down in front of him. "Just like one of my centre-halves," he smiled.

Unlike Arsenal, whose defeat in Valencia will provoke bouts of prolonged introspection at Highbury, Newcastle United can take their leave of the Champions' League with a grin. The fact that, barring disaster, they will qualify automatically for next season's competition, without which the club's finances might seem alarmingly stretched, has also made elimination easier to take.

Nevertheless, next season will be different. Newcastle will be expected to do more than just provide an entertaining sideshow to the Champions' League and, defensively, they will have to improve. They kept just one clean sheet in a dozen fixtures, the 1-0 victory over Juventus in October, which was the moment their fortunes dramatically shifted.

They were always living on the edge. In Rotterdam, a two-goal lead was surrendered against Feyenoord only for Craig Bellamy to snatch an improbable third. At San Siro, they outplayed Internazionale but conceded weak goals. At St James' Park, they bombarded Feyenoord and, early on, Barcelona and not only lost but failed to score.

It says something for the seat-of-the-pants ride their Champions' League campaign became that Newcastle were presented with seven must-win games and it says plenty for their character that they won five, drew one and even the defeat was ultimately irrelevant.

The contrast with Barcelona could not be starker. On the surface, the Catalans have sailed serenely into the quarter-finals, topping both their groups, and yet regular Barça-watchers claim they have outplayed few sides. Robson's scout at Barcelona's match with Bayer Leverkusen reported that the Germans should have scored four before half-time. You could say the same of their display on Wednesday but ultimately Barcelona had a boxer's nous to know how to take a punch and when to start jabbing back.

"They managed to ride the pressure, get through the time when they were second-best and didn't concede goals," Robson said of a club which still holds a fierce place in his affections. "It wasn't easy to puncture them but when you are the better side, as we were in the first half, you have to score. When you see them absorb the pressure and have such inventiveness on the counter-attack I wonder why they are doing so badly in La Liga. It's bizarre, mystifying." Robson remarked that Frank de Boer was not afraid to boot the ball out of play when he had to and complained that his back four lacked a natural leader, but since Jonathan Woodgate, part of the Leeds side which made it to the semi-finals of the European Cup, will be available next season that problem may already have been solved.

Come September, a raw midfield and forward line will be older and tougher, although Hugo Viana, who has been out for much of the competition, has expressed his dissatisfaction with his non-selection and wants to go out on loan.

If this campaign did anything, it balanced Alan Shearer's indifferent record in European club football while Bellamy reminded observers of Andy Cole in his first years at Manchester United – do you praise him for having so many chances or damn him for missing most of them? Robson was clear where he stood. "People like Bellamy, who get in again and again, are jewels," he said. "You can't criticise those kind of guys."

Cole became United's heaviest goalscorer in Europe until overtaken by Ruud van Nistelrooy, and if Bellamy can avoid the rashness which caused him to miss five matches through suspension, he will be well placed to do the same at Newcastle.