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If Newcastle’s rivals for a Champions League place had hoped Eddie Howe’s players might be partied out after ending that 70-year domestic trophy drought, they were destined for disappointment.
Howe’s team were not at their very best but, thanks to the most eye-catching of winning goals from Sandro Tonali they found a way to defuse Brentford’s ever-present threat.
While defeat was arguably a little harsh on Thomas Frank’s side, it lifted Newcastle to fifth, one point ahead of Chelsea who host Tottenham on Thursday night. With nine games remaining a Grand Tour of Europe beckons for Howe and his Wembley history boys.
Newcastle may have been newly minted Carabao Cup winners but they were up against a Brentford side aiming to extend a run of five straight away wins. The attendant confidence perhaps explains why Frank’s players remained largely unfazed as Newcastle began brightly, stretching their visitors down both wings and nearly taking an early lead when Alexander Isak directed a header narrowly wide.
Yet if Isak, who subsequently lifted a shot over the crossbar, looked in menacing mood, Brentford threatened on the break. Indeed it was soon easy to appreciate why Frank’s right winger, Bryan Mbeumo, ranks so highly on Howe’s summer shopping list.
Mbeumo’s amalgam of outstanding movement and laser accuracy of delivery dictated that, on the left of the home defence, Tino Livramento and Dan Burn could never relax. Neither could Tonali. Howe had the midfielder to thank for intercepting a series of Brentford counterattacks as his intelligent interpretation of the No 6 role once again underlined his importance to Newcastle.
As the dangerous Kevin Schade, deployed nominally on the left wing, and the rest of Frank’s front line interchanged positions with a dizzying speed to rival the constantly altering images flickering on the stadium’s electronic advertising hoardings, Howe’s players no longer seemed like all-conquering heroes.
They are nothing if not resilient, though, and they do possess Isak. Sure enough, with half-time fast approaching the Sweden striker conjured the opening that prefaced a narrowly offside Harvey Barnes turning the ball into an empty net.
Undeterred by the decision to disallow that one, Isak responded by connecting with Jacob Murphy’s superb cross and, capitalising on Mbeumo’s unfortunate stumble, volleyed home beyond Mark Flekken’s reach from close range.
If Mbeumo had lost his footing at just the wrong moment, the manner in which Isak had wrongfooted Ethan Pinnock and Nathan Collins in the preamble to Barnes’s disallowed effort had suggested it was only a matter of time before the forward made a mark on the game. As Frank’s defence would doubtless testify, Isak is almost unstoppable right now.
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Mbeumo is not too bad in front of goal himself, however. He duly equalised from the penalty spot following Nick Pope’s foul on Yoane Wissa. Pope’s punishment was to be sent the wrong way as Mbeumo, who had created the original opening, registered his 16th goal of a tremendous season.
Newcastle were wobbling and Howe looked relieved when Pinnock’s header rebounded off the crossbar. The moment had arrived for Tonali to reassert himself thanks to the finest of finishes.
Given that Tonali struck it from a classic crossing position near a corner flag, it was also one of the most audacious goals seen this season. Maybe he did not really mean it and it was supposed to be a cross, or perhaps he had spotted that Flekken was off his line and decided to put his stellar ability to the test. Whatever the precise truth, Tonali’s song – “drinks Moretti, eats spaghetti, hates Sunderland” – came tumbling down from the stands.
At the final whistle, Frank wandered over to the Italian and, smiling ruefully, seemed to ask him: “Did you mean that? Tonali grinned broadly and, perhaps inevitably, mouthed “yes”.
