Newcastle United 1, Manchester City 1
Newcastle United held Manchester City to a draw as the Blues started life without Rodri for the rest of the season at St James’ Park.
Embed from Getty ImagesRico Lewis was the player nominally selected to fill the gap although Mateo Kovacic and Jack Grealish replaced flying wingers Savinho and Jeremy Doku from the team that started last Sunday’s Premier League clash against Arsenal.
City were using a combination of Lewis and Kovacic to replace the Spanish midfielder who is up for the Ballon d’Or.
The visitors clearly went for control against a Newcastle side who were primed for the counter attack with their pace and it seemed to be paying dividends when Grealish set up Josko Gvardiol for the opening goal after 35 minutes – a familiar step inside from the left and right footed finish from the Croatian after receiving the ball from the England man.
Ilkay Gundogan had a game to forget as he failed to punish Nick Pope for a poor clearance – somehow he missed a golden chance to chip the veteran Newcastle goalkeeper.
And inevitably the Magpies hit back with a soft penalty won and converted by Anthony Gordon who went down easily against a challenge from Ederson after Kyle Walker had played him onside from Bruno Guimaraes’ through ball after 58 minutes.
Both sides had chances to win the game, with Sean Longstaff and Bernardo Silva both going close but Newcastle ensured that City would drop another 2 points in consecutive Premier League games despite bright cameos from Phil Foden, Jeremy Doku, and Savinho off the bench.
More worryingly for City is a potential injury to Erling Haaland who was left with a painful looking ankle injury and subsequently had a quiet game.
“He has some knocks here but we will see in the next days how he is.” Guardiola said after the draw.