Newcastle were narrowly beaten by Portuguese side Benfica 3-2 in a match that was anything but friendly.
Eddie Howe made a last-minute decision before kick-off to go with Miguel Almiron in the first half over Jacob Murphy, announcing the change after the teams were revealed. That proved to be a master stroke as it was Almiron who bagged both of Newcastle’s goals in the first half.
Benfica opened the scoring on 15 minutes when Goncalo Ramos headed beyond Nick Pope from a corner before Miggy Almiron tapped home to equalise after some fine interplay with Kieran Trippier.
Alejandro Grimaldo restored Benfica’s lead, firing an unstoppable free-kick beyond Pope. Almiron was the main man again as he restored parity with a lovely curling effort on the stroke of half time. The Paraguayan has been on fire in pre-season, scoring goals for fun.
Has Miggy Earned His Premier League Place?
Yes
No
It was all change at half time from Eddie Howe as he fielded an entirely different eleven. Youngster, Matty Bondswell played the half at left-back and showed real potential, earning praise from many fans on twitter for his display. Along with Anderson, who had a relatively quiet game in the first half, it looks like Newcastle have some decent players primed to come through the academy already.
Newcastle dominated possession in the second half, restricting Benfica to just one shot at goal before the game flipped on its head late on.
The first half was filled with niggly little fouls, but it all blew up in the second half as Joelinton looked like he wanted to take on the world. He was booked for arguing with the referee and followed it up with another yellow card for a late challenge that some refs would maybe have given a red for. Following his dismissal, Joelinton had a not so friendly word with every official he encountered on his way to the tunnel which sparked a bit of a battle on the touchline between the two benches. Whoever it was holding back Jason Tindall may just have saved someone’s life.
Despite being down to ten men, Newcastle maintained their second half dominance, but Benfica managed to exploit the gap eventually, registering a second attempt on goal in the half which ended up in the back of the net via Araujo on 87 minutes.
There was a lot to praise about the Newcastle performance tonight and very few negatives. Being picky, I would say that Saint-Maximin still needs reeling in a bit, he gave possession away far too often, and if we go into the season with only Chris Wood as back up to Callum Wilson we are up the creek.
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