Newcastle 0-0 Leicester
ST JAMES’ PARK — In 130 years Newcastle can never have celebrated a goalless draw like this.
Eddie Howe‘s side did not win but the bigger victory is theirs – they are back in the Champions League and the ground shook with the roar that came at the final whistle.
It was only in the final knockings of a game they had dominated that it seemed like the size of the prize they were so close to dawned on them. Leicester sensed the tension and advanced but Nick Pope blocked Timothy Castagne from point blank range.
In the end was something here for everyone. Newcastle did what was required while Leicester kept alive faint hopes of a great escape and ended in such fine fettle they might have snatched it. Play with this much heart and they will put pressure on Everton on Sunday.
For the home side whatever frustration they felt at failing to crack the wall of blue resistance was suitably fleeting.
Something special has been uncorked at Newcastle and there was an electricity about the place all night.
Previous managers have alluded to how the yearning for success in these parts can sometimes curdle into something unmanageable but it has been stoked by the current owners, optimism encouraged and chanelled into an enthusiasm that has given the club that precious commodity of momentum.
Newcastle have worked closely with tifosi group Wor Flags to create visually stunning displays that the players have spoken about with wide-eyed admiration. Golden flags fluttered last night to signify the top four achievement before a surfer flag was unfurled in the East Stand with a legend alluding to the importance of hard work.
And most of that had been done long before last night. Liverpool’s misstep, allied with Newcastle taking care of business against Brighton last week, had removed any lingering anxiety about Newcastle’s destination. Even the pessimists arrived ready to party.
To prove the point, Newcastle co-owners Jamie Reuben, Mehrdad Ghodoussi and Saudi Public Investment Fund grandee Yasir Al-Rumayyan responded to a Twitter request by duelling in a light-hearted half-time penalty shoot-out. Real Madrid might be here next season but for one night only it all felt a bit surreal.
What a job Howe has done. There’s an inevitability about Pep Guardiola‘s coronation as manager of the year but he has a case that is every bit as compelling. The Catalan is his generation’s managerial genius, a visionary capable of making the best even better, but would he have inherited a team marooned in 20th place and taken them to the Champions League in less than two years?
More than that, could he have taken players like Sean Longstaff, Joelinton, Jacob Murphy and Fabian Schar and made them the spine of a team that has so impressively disrupted the order of English football?
Spending has been plentiful and recruitment impressively astute. But there has been some seriously sharp coaching behind the transformation.
The class acts they have astutely imported have lifted standards. Neither the swaggering Alexander Isak nor the towering Sven Botman will look out of place in the Champions League next season. And Newcastle couldn’t have picked a better player to symbolise their new era than Bruno Guimaraes, an intoxicating midfield mix of steel and silk who has created and scored goals at pivotal moments this season.
He was the man entrusted with picking apart Leicester’s low block but benefited from mystifying good fortune when a raking, studs up challenge on Boubakary Soumare’s knee only warranted a yellow card. Despite lusty remonstrations from a mic-ed up John Terry, VAR did not intervene to upgrade the punishment.
How Leicester needed something like that to go in their favour. Scrapping for their lives, Smith stiffened their midfield by dropping James Maddison and Ashley Barnes to plug the gaps Liverpool had exploited last week.
They came to spoil and it worked brilliantly. Daniel Iversen was inspired, Jonny Evans posting a performance that made you wonder whether Leicester’s fate might have been different if he’d been available for most of the season.
There is a whiff of sorrow about their vertiginous decline, a brutal reminder in the weekend when Manchester City reasserted their dominance that football fairytales are unsustainable when they collide with the unlimited funds of the so-called big six.
Newcastle are actually the first team since Leicester to break into the Champions League who will arrive from outside the usual suspects. You suspect they will sustain and build from the platform they’ve earned.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/vqfsH7m
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