Newcastle United manager Kenny Dalglish sang the praises of hat-trick hero Faustino Asprilla after the Magpies opened their Champions' League campaign with three points at the expense of mighty Barcelona. Colombian striker Asprilla earned his side a three-goal lead and although the Spanish giants pulled the score back to 3-2 before the end, Dalglish was still delighted with the performance.

"Tino will get all the headlines tomorrow and rightly so because he scored three great goals and caused them many, many problems," said the Newcastle boss.

"But every one of the players is a hero. They are all equally important because they went out there and battled really hard.

"We played really well in the first half and we've won 3-2, even though they gave us one or two scares at the end.

"After half-time you would expect them to come back and hammer us, and they did that. Credit them for that because they are a great team. But tonight we've got the three points and that's the most important thing."

Dalglish hailed Newcastle's victory as the perfect tribute to outgoing chairman Sir John Hall, whose financial backing has helped the Magpies to take their place on the European stage.

"Its a great night for the chairman and really it's a fitting accolade to him after he announced his retirement on Monday," said Dalglish.

"We have not had that many big European nights so this will go down in recent times as one of the best. We have two more European nights to come at home and let's hope we can add to this."

Asprilla outshone Barcelona's foreign stars in a world-class performance, although he was ably assisted by Keith Gillespie's wing display.

The Colombian netted his first goal from the penalty spot after 20 minutes and then headed home two Gillespie crosses in the 30th and 48th minutes to complete his treble.

"He was a tremendous threat up front on his own", said Dalglish. "He does that for his country and he was great tonight.

"He won the penalty himself and the next two goals came from hard work by Gillespie finished off with two good headers."

But Dalglish stressed that it was a team triumph and he claimed his defenders earned their corn during a frantic finale when Barcelona pulled two goals back through Luis Enrique and then Luis Figo two minutes from time. "When they pulled it back to 3-2 we were under the cosh a little bit, but that's when the defenders came into their own and they made their contribution," he said.

Barcelona's Dutch coach Luis Van Gaal felt his side did not compete with Newcastle in the first half and said: "When I came to Spain I was pleased because of the mentality of the Spanish players to be aggressive. But I am very disappointed by the fact that Newcastle could play their own game."