Newcastle survived a brief scare against Brentford to secure a seventh place finish in the Premier League in emphatic fashion through elite talents Alex Isak and Bruno Guimaraes.
Harvey Barnes, Jacob Murphy and Isak sent the Toon romping into a half-time lead. Vitaly Janelt and Yoane Wissa made it an uncomfortable finish, but Bruno put it beyond doubt; a huge relief as Man Utd secured a 2-0 win at Brighton.
It was a game that typified Newcastle’s season – at times brilliant and at times infuriating. However, the lads got the job done today and got the win to end a tough campaign on a high, with us set to play Europa Conference League football next term if Manchester City win the FA Cup next weekend.
Eddie Howe made four changes to the team that lost to Man U last time out. Nick Pope, Fabian Schar, Joelinton and Harvey Barnes replace Martin Dubravka, Kieran Trippier, Elliot Anderson and Anthony Gordon.
Almost as soon as the game had started and Ivan Toney looked to have put the Bees ahead, but a lengthy VAR check spared our blushes after an offside was spotted in the build up.
We missed a huge chance to open the scoring ourselves after 10 minutes when Alexander Isak jinked past his defender and put it on a plate for Joelinton, but the Brazilian dragged what looked like a simple finish wide.
The breakthrough came in the 22nd minute as the ball was worked to Bruno wide on the right, he picked a great ball into the box to find the oncoming Harvey Barnes who met the header perfectly and sent it into the top corner. A huge goal for the winger who had big shoes to fill in Gordon’s absence and just what we needed to settle the early nerves.
Three minutes later the away end thought we had another one after Sean Longstaff buried the ball in the bottom corner, but Isak was offside in the build up and VAR confirmed the assistant’s flag.
10 minutes from half-time Isak pounced on a loose ball from a defender and played a swooping pass to the back post and Murphy…
Source link : https://www.nufcblog.co.uk/2024/05/19/brentford-2-4-newcastle-toons-elite-duo-fire-eddies-mags-to-brink-of-europe/
Author : Joshua Nichol
Publish date : 2024-05-19 17:26:14
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