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Key events
HALF TIME: Newcastle United 1-1 Manchester City
That flew by. Great entertainment. A half of two halves, with Newcastle dominant for a while, before City decided the best form of defence is attack, and piled forward accordingly. More please!
45 min: Some dugout action, as City assistant manager Kolo Toure is booked for his part in a philosophical back-and-forth with Newcastle sub Joelinton. There will be one additional first-half minute.
44 min: Hall slide-tackles to whip the ball away from Savinho. The ball gets stuck under his arms as he falls on all fours. City claim a penalty but they’re not getting one. Then Reijnders meets a ball dropping over his shoulder and slices it wide right. Newcastle really need this half-time whistle.
43 min: Newcastle are punch-drunk. They’re desperate to hear the half-time whistle and regroup.
41 min: Ramsdale, stunned at this sudden turnaround in momentum, dithers with the ball at his feet. He’s stripped by Marmoush, who cuts back for O’Reilly. Ramsdale is extremely fortunate that O’Reilly doesn’t go direct for the unguarded net, pausing and winning a corner, which is wasted. But Newcastle are suddenly all over the show!
40 min: Savinho, now an artist in motion. He glides down the right and cuts back for Reijnders, who steams into the box and sends a low shot across Ramsdale and inches wide of the left-hand post.
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-1 Manchester City (Savinho 39)
This is an absurd goal. Doku drops a shoulder to dribble past Trippier down the left. He fires a low ball through the six-yard box. Ramsdale misses it. Savinho, standing at 45 degrees towards the goal, stands stock still, lets the ball hit him, and doesn’t move an inch as it bobbles slowly towards the line and over it. Can you showboat without moving a muscle? If so, Savinho’s just done it!
38 min: Still no space in that final third for City, but Newcastle are being forced to punt clear again and again, and the visitors keep coming back. And then …
36 min: Manchester City are dominating possession now, but they can’t find any space in Newcastle’s final third.
34 min: Doku, plying his trade up the other end now, slips a ball down the channel for Reijnders to race onto. The midfielder extends a leg and pokes the ball goalwards, but he’s stretching at his limit, and can’t get any power behind the poke. Ramsdale deals with it.
33 min: Elanga’s delivery is flat and hopeless. The ball’s half-cleared towards Hall on the left. Hall swings in a dangerous-looking diagonal, but it flies out of play for a goal kick, and it might have been the case that Newcastle had half of their team offside anyway.
32 min: Trippier takes on Doku down the right. Shouldn’t this be the other way around? Anyway, Doku puts in a forward’s challenge and upends Trippier, who was going nowhere near the corner flag. Elanga to take the free kick.
30 min: Tonali skips his way out of trouble near a crowded left touchline, and prepares to dribble upfield. He’s clipped by Savinho. Another referee might have shown yellow, but the ref shows the young forward mercy.
29 min: Savinho dribbles hard down the right. Hard and fast. He backs himself in a footrace with Hall, and makes enough space for a shot, though it’s from a tight angle, on the corner of the six-yard box. He fires low, and Ramsdale bundles the ball around the post. Nothing comes of the resulting corner.
27 min: Newcastle have taken eight attempts at City’s goal already, three of them on target. It’s been a blistering start by the hosts. City haven’t got anything on target yet.
25 min: A Newcastle free kick out on the right. Newcastle line up on the edge of the City box. Trippier swings it in. A bit flat. O’Reilly half clears. The ball drops to Barnes, who tries to send a volley towards the top-right corner of the goal. He finds the top-right corner of the Leazes.
23 min: … Savinho fails to beat the first man. But the ball comes back to him, and he tees up Reijnders, who takes a whack from the edge of the box. The ball’s deflected off a sky-blue shirt for a goal kick. Everything going Newcastle’s way at the moment. Could that 71-year FA Cup drought be coming to an end? (Going a bit early with that, admittedly.)
22 min: Manchester City try to respond quickly, Nunes making a deep run on the right and trapping a long pass exquisitely. But his second touch isn’t quite so good and Hall can clear. But City come again, through Nunes down the right once more, and he forces Tonali into the concession of a corner, from which …
20 min: Barnes, his tail up, scampers down the left again. He cuts back this time, teeing up Tonali, who lashes high and wide from 25 yards. Newcastle have been excellent so far.
19 min: That move was started by a lovely spin into space by Botman. Barnes’ arm was offside, but you can’t score with that, and the rest of him was being played on by Khusanov in the middle.
GOAL! Newcastle United 1-0 Manchester City (Barnes 18)
This had been coming. Barnes chases Tonali’s pass down the inside-left channel. He’s in acres of space. He enters the box, runs around the ball, opens his body, and steers a curler across Trafford and into the right-hand side of the net. Lovely finish!
17 min: Willock and Khusanov chase a loose ball down Newcastle’s inside-right channel. A coming together. Both players require a little bit of treatment, but they’re good to keep going.
15 min: Reijnders trips Barnes near the centre circle; Ramsdale launches the free kick long. Stones heads clear, but not confidently so. Barnes picks up possession down the left and crosses low. Osula slashes at the ball; Thiaw does likewise and it flies wide left. Newcastle are certainly unsettling City’s defence.
13 min: … so there have already been a couple of big signs that this City defence isn’t too steady under the high ball. The early Hall throw, and now that corner. No wonder Eddie Howe was talking about getting some crosses in for Woltemade.
11 min: Osula sprints after Tonali’s speculative long pass down the inside-right channel. He nearly gets ahead of Stones, but the defender sticks to his shoulder. Osula can’t get a shot away, and neither can Barnes, arriving later to help. Khusanov is forced to prod behind for a corner, from which Trafford spills an Osula header. Woltemade meets the spill, dinking a header over the stranded Trafford, but Gonzalez is on the line to hook clear. Newcastle so close on a couple of occasions!
9 min: A bit of time and space for Elanga, who cuts in from the right flank and aims a dipper towards the bottom-right corner. Trafford handles a pacy shot well.
7 min: Savinho seems to get the better of Hall with a dribble down the right, but strangely elects to chop back rather than powering into the box. Then, when the ball goes out for a Newcastle throw, Gonzalez hits a crossfield pass in frustration, and is extremely fortunate not to go into the book. The home fans not happy.
6 min: … Barnes heads clear under no pressure, Savinho having curled to the near post.
5 min: Well that was a bright start by both teams. It all augurs well. And here’s Savinho, his presence down the City right forcing Barnes into the concession of a corner, from which …
3 min: City respond through Reijnders, who enters the box down the right and whistles a low drive wide right. He’s then clattered by the late-arriving Thiaw, and City want a penalty for rough play, but the referee’s not interested and VAR doesn’t intervene.
2 min: … and so does the two-minute mark, but not before Newcastle win the first corner of the game down the right. The corner ends up with Tonali, just to the left of the D. His curler evades everyone in the middle. Goal kick.
1 min: The kick-off’s sent long, and Newcastle win a throw deep in City territory on the left. Hall launches long. The ball nearly drops first to Woltemade, then Elanga, but neither can get an effort on target and turn themselves into the Jackie Milburn de nos jours. The 45-second mark ticks over without the scoreboard being troubled.
Newcastle United get the ball rolling. City are kicking towards the Gallowgate in this first half.
The teams are out! Newcastle in their black and white, Manchester City in their sky blue. Blaydon Races, Hey Jude and Going Home: Theme of the Local Hero the tuneful triptych that tees up tonight’s fun. We’ll be off once that sax stops tootling.
Pre-match postbag. “Really looking foeward to this one, despite the fact that this fixture is the new version of AC Milan v Barcelona. (Remember they used to play each other around 15 times a season in the Champions League?) The FA Cup feels particularly important this season (only thing we can realistically win) and it would be nice to right the wrongs of previous half-baked campaigns. I’m glad Eddie Howe has recalled Woltemade too. There’s a brilliant player in there and he just needs time and support” – Chris Paraskevas
“Yes, ten changes for City, but how many of them would walk into Newcastle’s line-up? At least half. And why did the BBC choose Wolves v Liverpool over this?” – Andrew Goudie
This is a rerun of the 1955 FA Cup final. Jackie Milburn opened the scoring for Newcastle after 45 seconds, a record for a Wembley final at the time. City went down to ten men after 22 minutes, Jimmy Meadows stretchered off in an era when subs were not permitted. But they made a good fist of it, Bobby Johnstone equalising just before the break. Legs went during the second half, though, as Bobby Mitchell and George Hannah secured a 3-1 win for the Toon. It remains the last time Newcastle won the cup; by contrast, Manchester City have won it five times since then, and one of their players now holds the fastest-goal record too.
Pep’s turn to chat with TNT. “It is always a big challenge … this stadium … incredibly aggressive in the first part … long balls … a Champions League club … [Erling Haaland’ was not planned to play … I prefer to give him a good training session.”
And why so many changes, Pep? “Because we have soooooooo many games!” A twinkle in his eye as he makes his unequivocally serious point.
Eddie Howe talks to TNT Sports. “[The Manchester United win] is a big boost for us … a good performance … 11 v 10 … confidence … we need to take that into this one … it wasn’t the draw we wanted … but we’re at home … we need to play with the same energy to get the crowd with us again … we have made a few changes to keep the players fresh … I’d love to see [Nick Woltemade] on the end of a few crosses.”
Newcastle United make four changes to their starting XI after the 2-1 win over Manchester United. Sven Botman, Joe Willock, Nick Woltemade and Wednesday night’s matchwinning hero Will Osula replace Dan Burn, Joelinton and Anthony Gordon, who drop to the bench, and the suspended Jacob Ramsey.
Manchester City wipe the slate clean, just about, following their 2-2 home draw with Nottingham Forest. Ten changes, which means it’s easier to tell you the identity of the only starter still standing: Matheus Nunes. Erling Haaland has the night off.
The teams
Newcastle United: Ramsdale, Trippier, Botman, Thiaw, Hall, Tonali, Willock, Barnes, Woltemade, Elanga, Osula.
Subs: Pope, Joelinton, Wissa, Gordon, Livramento, Jacob Murphy, Burn, Alex Murphy, Neave.
Manchester City: Trafford, Matheus Luiz, Khusanov, Stones, Ake, Gonzalez, Reijnders, O’Reilly, Savio, Marmoush, Doku.
Subs: Donnarumma, Dias, Cherki, Guehi, Rodri, Silva, Ait Nouri, Semenyo, Foden.
Referee: Sam Barrott (West Yorkshire)
Preamble
Welcome to the fifth match between Newcastle United and Manchester City this season. The previous four don’t offer too much in the way of clues: City bossed Newcastle in both legs of the League Cup semi-final, but Newcastle won this corresponding fixture in the league, and recently gave City an almighty fright with a spirited performance in defeat at the Etihad. Throw in the fact that City will be slightly dispirited after losing ground in the title race midweek, while Newcastle are high on life after a sensational victory over old foes Manchester United, and you can make a proper case for both teams emerging victorious tonight. Entertainment ahoy! Kick-off is at 8pm GMT. It’s on!
(And to think they could feasibly face each other in the Champions League final as well.)
#Newcastle #Manchester #City #Cup #live #Cup
