Willock, Wilson lead Newcastle into 3rd place with win over Man U
London, Apr 2 (EFE).- Newcastle United blanked Manchester United 2-0 on second-half tallies by Joe Willock and Callum Wilson on Sunday, clawing their way into third place in the Premier League at St. James Park in Newcastle and showing that they are ready to compete in the Champions League.
Man U had a bad day and found itself completely dominated by the home squad, the only saving grace for the team being Spanish netminder David de Gea, who prevented Newcastle from running up the score by astute play in the twine.
Early on, De Gea got a double save, denying both Alexander Isak and Willock, who then squandered an even better chance at point-blank range after a getting the ball from Allan Saint-Maximin.
Erik Ten Haag’s Man U had defeated Newcastle in the Carabobo Cup back in February, so Sunday’s win was relatively sweet.
However, on this outing, the Manchester squad didn’t even manage to get a shot on goal until Minute 56, and that was a fruitless and rather vanilla try by Antony.
The win put Newcastle in the No. 3 spot in the table, just in front of United on goal differential with both sides sitting on 50 points with a game in hand over Tottenham Hotspur in fifth place.
And with the win, Newcastle jumped over Erik ten Hag’s men to grab a much-coveted Champions League berth.
The home team managed to manufacture quite a nice number of chances throughout the match, but were only able to score on the shot by Willock in the 65th minute when he was uncovered and sent the ball into the net after a Saint-Maximin assist, and again at the hands of Wilson, coming off the bench, just two minutes before time and heading in a free kick by Kieran Trippier.
The hapless Red Devils, coached by Eddie Howe, were without the services of midfielder Casemiro, who is on suspension, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, on the sick list, but Marcus Rashford was back in the lineup after being benched during England’s Euro 2024 qualifying matches due to injury, although he played rather poorly.
The UEFA Champions League is a yearly top-division European soccer tourney that decides the competition winners in a round robin group stage during which they qualify for a double-legged knockout format and a single leg final.
– Lineups:
Newcastle United: Pope; Trippier, Schar, Botman, Burn; Longstaff, Guimaraes, Willock (Anderson, m.84); Murphy (Gordon, m.69), Isak (Wilson, m.80) and Saint-Maximin (Joelinton, m.68).
Manchester United: De Gea; Dalot, Varane (Lindelof, m.84), Martinez (Pellistri, m.83), Shaw; Sabitzer, McTominay (Fred, m.83), Fernandes; Antony (Sancho, m.62), Weghorst (Martial, m.62) and Rashford.
EFE –/bp
