Eighty-eight minutes had passed and Newcastle fans were already in party mode when Alejandro Grimaldo collected Ibrahim Maza’s pass and concluded a move he had initiated courtesy of a glorious run and dummy.

As the Spain left wing-back’s shot slid beneath Aaron Ramsdale’s body and his Bayer Leverkusen teammates celebrated an arguably deserved equaliser, North Rhine-Westphalia suddenly felt a much colder place for Eddie Howe’s players.

At the end of a night that highlighted their fragility at dead balls and on which they struggled to contain Grimaldo in particular, Newcastle were left with work to do if they are to extend their latest Champions League adventure into next spring.

That said, they remain well-placed to progress to the knockout phase, even if their more likely route now would appear to be via the playoffs.

“It was a tough, tough game,” said Howe. “I thought we played well but we haven’t defended well enough. There’s frustration but we’re hopefully moving in the right direction.”

Newcastle’s manager saw his side fall apart – and behind – at an early corner and now must address his players’ vulnerability to set pieces ahead of Sunday’s Premier League Tyne-Wear derby at Sunderland. Then there is the question of whether the suddenly jaded Sandro Tonali should be replaced by the impressive Lewis Miley at the Stadium of Light.

Howe had been expecting a tactical technical area duel with Kasper Hjulmand but Bayer Leverkusen’s manager was absent for personal reasons.

That left his assistant, Rogier Meijer, to take charge of the team currently fourth in Germany’s top tier. Meijer must have been extremely content with a first half ­characterised by much slick, sharp, passing and movement as his pleasingly fluid side constantly interchanged positions.

They were ahead in the 13th minute after Newcastle got themselves into a terrible tangle at a corner.

When Leverkusen’s captain, Robert Andrich, dodged Tonali he was left free to direct a header goalwards. Its journey took a detour via Bruno Guimarães’s backside and the deflection left a well beaten Ramsdale thoroughly deceived. Although Andrich claimed the credit it was a Guimarães own goal.

“We gave ourselves a mountain to climb,” said Howe. “But my players deserve credit for coming back.”

Shortly afterwards things very nearly took another wrong turn for Newcastle. Once Patrik Schick met Malik Tillman’s fine through ball and accelerated towards the area a wrong-footed Malick Thiaw ended up felling Schick on the edge of the area.

The referee initially awarded a penalty but downgraded it to a free-kick when a video assistant referee review detected the offence had occurred fractionally outside the 18-yard box. A relieved Thiaw, meanwhile, was shown a yellow card before watching Leverkusen’s set-piece specialist, Grimaldo, lift the ensuring free-kick over the crossbar. “We maybe had a bit of luck with Malick and the penalty,” Howe conceded. “That was a big moment.”

It proved the cue for Howe’s players to wake up but, with their final ball lacking the necessary quality and Nick Woltemade looking slightly nervous on his return to Germany, Newcastle remained vulnerable to Leverkusen counterattacks. Even so, the home goalkeeper, Mark Flekken, did extremely well to prevent an equaliser when Grimaldo deflected Tino Livramento’s cross goalwards.

Howe’s problem was that, whenever the hosts broke, his defenders looked bewildered in the face of Schick’s habit of dropping deep and dragging them out of position while leaving Tillman and Ernest Poku free to burst into the box.

With half-time beckoning Thiaw – who, uncharacteristically, was struggling badly – and company had Ramsdale to thank for a stunning fingertip save from Jarell Quansah, whose advance from the back three and connection with Arthur’s right-wing delivery had proceeded unchecked.

Then, five minutes, into the second half Leverkusen, or more specifically Flekken, self-destructed. As the former Brentford goalkeeper prepared to clear, he lost concentration and dawdled, permitting Woltemade to not merely close him down but, courtesy of some seriously nifty footwork, dispossess him.

Flekken responded by pushing Woltemade over and Anthony Gordon made no mistake from the penalty spot. As Gordon celebrated his fifth Champions League goal this season the mortified keeper pulled his jersey over his face.

There was to be no hiding place for Flekken though and he was very nearly beaten again when Gordon’s shot rebounded off the inside of a post.

Miley, who had just replaced the injured Joelinton in midfield, thought he had won it when he headed Gordon’s cross home before Grimaldo eased a little of Flekken’s pain by enjoying the final word.