Newcastle United's wait for Etihad win continues as Manchester City hold on to take 2-1 win in Premier League
We asked just one thing before kick-off tonight, and that was for Newcastle United to just give Manchester City a game at the Etihad Stadium rather than just rolling over for the bigger boys.
The first 15 minutes of the game were a tough watch as Newcastle did seem to roll over for belly rubs. Manchester City were relentless with their press, and Newcastle barely had a sniff.
Anthony Gordon and Anthony Elanga's pace caused a couple of problems at the back for City, but with nobody to aim for in the middle, very little was on offer in terms of a goal threat for Newcastle.
Nico O'Reilly showed Newcastle how it was done with a superb run and finish on 14 minutes, tucking the ball just inside the post to give City the lead.
Newcastle started slowly but grew into the game
If Newcastle had a striker who was capable of running, Newcastle may have got more out of the first half, but Nick Woltemade makes Jonjo Shelvey look dynamic. I honestly can't remember if I've ever seen the German forward run. He just lazily jogs around the pitch and never makes an effort to get into the box. Elanga and Gordon just had nobody to aim for and had to try and create chances themselves.
Set pieces looked to be City's kryptonite, and so it was little surprise that Newcastle's goal came from a corner with Lewis Hall lashing a shot from outside the area after a poor clearance. The shot took a deflection on the way through and beat Gianluigi Donnarumma. Again, a testament to what can happen if you just have a punt.
Parity didn't last long, however, as Nico O'Reilly was on the scoresheet again, rising like a salmon to meet Erling Haaland's inch-perfect cross to power a header beyond Nick Pope.
Dan Burn had a goal disallowed after being pushed into an offside position
Newcastle had the ball in the back of the net again in the first half from another set piece with Dan Burn meeting Sandro Tonali's floated free kick and heading beyond Donnarumma, but the offside flag had gone up against Burn, who had been pushed into an offside position by a City defender.
The Magpies were much the better side in the second half, but again, their lack of a confident striker really hampered their ability to cause City any real problems.
Nick Pope made two massive saves towards the end of the game to keep Newcastle in touching distance, and in stoppage time, Harvey Barnes caused Donnarumma a problem, which resulted in a corner for which Nick Pope came up and made a nuisance of himself, but it was too late for Newcastle to snatch a point.
We never expected anything but a defeat tonight, and as we said, all we wanted was our lads to try, and aside from the opening exchanges, we can't have any complaints about the effort the lads put in. We can take a lot of positives from tonight, for sure.
