Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang dented Newcastle United's Champions League charge as Marseille came from behind to claim their second win of the campaign.

The Magpies led 1-0 at the Velodrome courtesy of Harvey Barnes' sixth-minute opener, his third goal in four days after his match-winning double against Manchester City, and were good value for it.

However, they were undone inside five second half minutes when 36-year-old former Arsenal frontman Aubameyang first capitalised on an error by goalkeeper Nick Pope to level and then stabbed the Ligue 1 side ahead amid a much-improved display to snatch a 2-1 victory.

Eddie Howe sprung a surprise by picking Jacob Murphy and Tino Livramento to line up at wing-back ahead of a three-man defence, but his side made the early running with Marseille captain Leonardo Balerdi just beating Anthony Gordon to Barnes' early cross and Bruno Guimarães seeing his shot from the resulting corner blocked.

Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg had to clear Malick Thiaw's fourth-minute header off the line as the visitors continued to press, and they were ahead two minutes later when Gordon helped on Sandro Tonali's cross and Barnes confidently slotted home.

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The hosts dominated possession as they looked for a way back into the game, but the Magpies' well organised 5-4-1 formation repeatedly frustrated them, although Pope had to save twice in quick succession from Aubameyang as they started to make an impression with Mason Greenwood the architect on both occasions.

Tonali forced a 23rd-minute save from Gerónimo Rulli with a tame shot after his cross had been blocked, but Marseille's 17-year-old midfielder Darryl Bakola, making his first start for the club and a Champions League debut, was significantly less accurate from distance four minutes later.

Rulli had to save from Joe Willock after Tonali, not for the first time, had broken up play inside the opposition half with the visitors continuing to threaten on the counter, but Igor Paixão curled a 34th-minute attempt wide in an end-to-end encounter.

Bakola was booked for simulation after going down as he rounded Fabian Schär rather than shooting and Aubameyang should have levelled seconds later but headed woefully wide from Greenwood's cross, before scooping a shot off target under pressure from Thiaw.

Rulli denied Gordon as the half-time whistle approached and the Premier League side went in a goal to the good at the break.

However, they squandered the lead within 20 seconds of the restart when Pope raced from his line in an ill-judged attempt to beat Aubameyang to Bakola's through-ball and saw the striker round him and finish superbly from an unlikely angle.

It was 2-1 within five minutes when Aubameyang got ahead of Schär to toe-poke Timothy Weah's cross past Pope at the near post, and it might have been three almost instantly when Hojbjerg fired straight at the keeper.

Pope went some of the way towards redeeming himself when he kept out Greenwood's 56th-minute piledriver, but Rulli had to be equally resilient to repel Willock's rising strike and then substitute Anthony Elanga's goalbound shot as Newcastle pushed for parity.

Barnes curled a late attempt agonisingly wide and a lack of precision in the final third as time ran down proved costly.