Newcastle visited their most cursed ground today as they took on Manchester United at Old Trafford.
In amongst an atmosphere reminiscent of the COVID days, the match got underway with some nice passing play by the hosts, not allowing Newcastle a touch on the ball for the opening couple of minutes. However, the Red Devils were going nowhere fast as Newcastle’s famous pressing kept them at bay.
From there on, the game became really open with possession evenly split between the two teams, but it was Newcastle who looked the most dangerous and really should have had a penalty early on. Varane stepped across Callum Wilson in the box after the striker knocked the ball forward. The referee missed the foul which is understandable given the congestion and the pace of play, but VAR didn’t give anything. Whether they simply didn’t look or what I don’t know but there was a definite case.
On 24 minutes, Newcastle really should have been ahead. A free kick by Trippier hit the wall and bounced back for Trippier to ping the ball back into the box where it found the head of Joelinton whose shot hit the bar and rebounded back to Joelinton who nodded the ball goalwards again only to see it come back off the upright this time.
With VAR still switched off, Newcastle were denied another penalty as Varane (again) tried to swap shirts with Dan Burn in the box but it wasn’t even looked at.
No shirt? No problem!
It took until 38 minutes for Manchester United to have a meaningful effort when Antony fired a low shot towards the near post only for Pope to save with his legs. Man United had their best spell of the half in the closing stages but never really looked like scoring.
Dan Burn was booked on 43 minutes for the softest foul ever seen, however, it was likely more for persistent fouling as just moments earlier he was punished for an arm across the face of Antony.
The two sides went into the break goalless with Newcastle feeling like they probably should be winning.
Who Was Your MOTM?
Dan Burn
Fabian Schar
Bruno Guimaraes
Miguel Almiron
Other
Ronaldo twice had the ball in the net in the opening five minutes of the second half. The first one was ruled out for offside, in fact, the only reason he scored was that he was so far offside, the Newcastle defence just stopped and let him continue. And then, in a bizarre incident, Ronaldo took the ball off Pope’s feet as he was setting himself to take the resulting free kick and he slotted the ball home. Insisting that the free kick had already been taken, Ronaldo and the entire Man United team surrounded the ref to plead their case which did nothing but earn Ronaldo a yellow card.
The 57th minute saw a VAR check for a penalty incident where Sancho launched himself into the air in the box following a Sean Longstaff challenge, but nothing was given.
On 59 minutes Eddie Howe brought on Ryan Fraser in place of Jacob Murphy who had a great start in the first half before fading into obscurity as the game went on. With Callum Wilson starved of service up front it was a move designed to get him back into the game.
The Battle of the Brunos came to a head on 64 minutes when Fernandes stepped on the ankle of Guimaraes earning himself a yellow card. Then following the free kick Fernandes found himself on the deck after a clash of heads with Fabian Schar.
Casimero then became the fourth player in the book after a clumsy challenge on Ryan Fraser.
The pitch got a good watering on 71 one minutes as Ronaldo was replaced by Marcus Rashford and the Portuguese sprayed his tears all over the pitch as he walked to the sidelines.
Eddie Howe made a triple substitution on 77 minutes bringing off Bruno, Burn and Wilson for Willock, Targett and Wood with Bruno hobbling off the pitch and Burn on a yellow, it seemed the right thing to do. Wilson hadn’t had a sniff all game, so Howe opted for a different approach with Wood to aim for.
Shortly after the substitution Almiron found himself in space on the edge of the box where he fired a shot over the bar.
Newcastle were let off the hook on 88 minutes as Rashford rounded Nick Pope on the edge of the box leaving the ‘keeper in no man’s land. Rashford pulls the ball back for Fred who, under pressure from Schar, pokes the ball wide. Huge miss for Manchester United.
With Alex Ferguson watching on, the board was held up for 5 minutes of extra time which also saw Schar limping off the pitch to be replaced by Jamaal Lascelles.
The hosts came alive in stoppage time and laid siege to the Newcastle defence in the closing stages but the game had a feel of one that could have gone on well into the night and still would have remained goalless, especially after Marcus Rashford headed wide from a golden opportunity in the final seconds of the game.
As for man of the match, I can’t see beyond Fabian Schar. He gave everything for the shirt today and ended up coming off with an injury following the challenge on Fred.
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