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Key events
Peeeeep! The second half begins.
This was the penalty incident, by the way. It’s a clear foul, so much so that Gordon played the rest of the half with a huge hole in the back of his sock, where Amrabat caught him. Not giving a penalty is forgivable in real time, such was the speed of the incident, but Newcastle will be fuming that this wasn’t picked up by VAR, who have the benefit of many angles and slow-motion. On the day that VAR is being debated, this feels pertinent.
This video was taken before tonight’s game: Rashford clashing with home fans.
Half-time reading below. I’m off for a cuppa.
Half-time: Manchester United 1-0 Newcastle
A thumping tackle from Amrabat ends the half.
45+2 min: Manchester United work a short corner, from which Diallo plays a neat one-two to somehow engineer some space inside Newcastle’s six-yard box, but Murphy makes a brilliant last-ditch tackle to deny the Ivorian. Old Trafford groans, they wanted their winger to pull the trigger.
45 min: Three minutes added on here. This has been a very even first half.
42 min: Newcastle really pushing for this equaliser, with Gordon the creator in chief. Trippier is also playing really high and putting in some dangerous crosses. One comes from a corner, where Guimaraes is completely unmarked at the back post! The Brazilian watches it all the way, and heads inexplicably five yards wide!
40 min: Casemiro is going to be OK. He’s kept Manchester United in the game this first half!
39 min: A nasty fall for Casemiro, who is really in the thick of the action tonight. He falls badly on his coccyx and looks like he might need to go off. Ouch.
37 min: Yellow card for Anderson, who trips McTominay.
Having a look a the replay for that challenge on Gordon. Casemiro’s tackle was clean, but there was clear contact by the retreating Amrabat on Gordon! Was harder to see because there were effectively two tackles in a millisecond, but the Moroccan’s tackle was definitely a foul.
35 min: Whisper it, but after a rocky start, Casemiro is having a stormer at centre back! Two Newcastle chances come and go in a couple of minutes. First, Amrabat gifts possession to Gordon, who bounds into the area and falls to the ground! Penalty?! No! Casemiro times his slide tackle to perfection.
A minute later, Casemiro clears off the line! A Newcastle cross goes to the back post, Burn heads back but Casemiro is there to head clear. It was centimetres from crossing the goaline. There is a check of the watch from the referee, but no goal!
33 min: Newcastle nearly hit back straight away. Gordon gets free on the right, rolls a beautiful low cross across the six-yard box but nobody is there to tap it in at the back post! A very similar chance to the one that Haaland converted for City’s first goal at Tottenham. Isak was on his heels!
GOAL! Manchester United 1-0 Newcastle (Mainoo 31)
A really odd goal, but Manchester United won’t care! Diallo cuts in from the right, tries to pass inside to Fernandes. But the pass doesn’t find the Portuguese. Instead it goes under Fernandes’ foot, fools two Newcastle defenders and goes all the way through to Mainoo, standing completely unmarked near the penalty spot. The teenager takes a touch and strokes into the net! He was played onside by Trippier, who was slow to move out from his deep position.
28 min: Both sides lacking a bit of fluency. Fernandes has been the best player on the pitch so far, with Gordon the most likely from Newcastle to make something happen.
26 min: Great save from Dubravka! Manchester United hit Newcastle on the counter-attack, with Fernandes and Garnacho twice exchanging passes, the latter getting free down the left. It’s an acute angle, but Garnacho has a shot at goal. Dubravka advances and closes the angle well, and it goes out from a corner, from which Diallo tries another volley. This time, it’s in the Stretford End.
Brighton 0-1 Chelsea (Palmer 34)
22 min: In tonight’s other game, there has been a goal. “An absolutely filthy header from a perfect Cucurella cross,” adds Joe Pearson by email. Cucurella is playing against his old club, remember.
20 min: A couple of decent openings for both teams. From a corner, Diallo scuffs a glorious opportunity to volley a Bruno Fernandes corner into the Newcastle net. For the visitors, Hall tries his luck from range, but Onana saves easily enough.
18 min: Alan Smith, on Sky co-commentary duty, has just described Garnacho’s bicycle kick against Everton as “the best I’ve ever seen”.
It’s definitely up there, but not sure it’s better than Trevor Sinclair’s effort or Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s acrobatics against England?
16 min: Better from the home side. Fernandes is finding pockets of space and finding both Mainoo and Wan-Bissaka with neat passes. Diallo gets a shot off from range, which stings Dubravka’s palms.
15 min: Manchester United are mixing up it from the back, sometimes playing out, sometimes kicking long. So far, so good.
12 min: Oceans of space for Longstaff in midfield – where are Mainoo and Amrabat?! – and the Newcastle man has a free run at Manchester United’s defence. Options left and right but Casemiro makes a fine interception as Longstaff tries to find Isak.
9 min: McTominay, who is operating as a roving forward, wins a free-kick off Burn, from which Casemiro tries an acrobatic bicycle kick. It’s not far away!
5 min: Almost a catastrophic error from Casemiro! The Brazilian saunters out with the ball from centre-back, loses possession and suddenly there is a giant hole at the heart of Manchester United’s defence. Murphy slips in Isak, who in turn finds Gordon, but just as the winger is breaking into the area, Amrabat makes a textbook slide tackle to clear the danger for the home side. Wasn’t quite as good as the tackle on Mbappé at the 2022 World Cup, but not far off.
4 min: Newcastle won the toss and made Manchester United change ends, so it’s the home side kicking towards the Stretford End in the first half. That will irk many inside the ground.
2 min: Early chance for Isak as Hall crosses, just too high for the Swede, who was completely unchallenged as he jumped on the six-yard box. A nervy start for the home team.
Peeeeep! We’re off at Old Trafford.
Should flag that Ten Hag got a warm reception from the home fans before kick-off, on his way from the tunnel to the dugout. And plenty of handshakes with the fans behind him as he sat down.
“Has the particularly obnoxious banner displayed at Old Trafford been amended to read ‘Not arrogant, just eighth’?” asks Richard Hirst.
“Why on earth not play Kambwala?” emails Tim Stappard. “Bonkers”.
Does seem to be a strange one, particularly against this pacy attack. And it’s not as though Jonny Evans is jet-heeled.
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe talks:
We’ve got two massive games. We’re going to need to be very good today. [European qualification] is close, but also very far away.
Trippier creates goals, attacks. His technical ability is of the highest level. He’s not trained much but he’s in a good condition to play.
Pleased to say that we’re not due for another downpour tonight in Manchester, although there might be some light drizzle closer to kick-off. Classic.
Meanwhile …
This is a fascinating story, and long overdue. Thank goodness that someone has put their head above the parapet – well done Wolves. VAR is a complete shambles and fundamentally takes the joy out of football. This is a game, and it’s more important for it to be fun than for it to be forensically accurate.
Should also flag that this isn’t the only Premier League game tonight. Chelsea, who are seventh and in excellent form (one Arsenal result aside), travel to Brighton. That’s a 7.45pm BST kick-off, and I’ll keep you abreast of the latest on the south coast.
Someone else lurking on the sidelines is Newcastle’s Nick Pope. This is his third game on the bench since his return from long-term injury – the goalkeeper suffered a freak shoulder injury in tonight’s return fixture in a 1-0 win over Manchester United on 2 December. He is undoubtedly Newcastle’s No 1.
Whatever the injury situation is, it’s a sad state of affairs for United fans to have Casemiro and Evans at centre back. Ten Hag has spent over £400m since coming in, and this squad has cost £1.2bn …
Interesting comments from Ten Hag. It’s not clear who will lead the line for Manchester United tonight, probably Bruno Fernandes as a false nine. The Portuguese missed the defeats to Crystal Palace and Arsenal, remember.
Marcus Rashford hasn’t played since the FA Cup semi-final against Coventry on 21 April and he makes the bench tonight. Lisandro Martínez also is in reserve, the Argentinian has played just one match since 4 February. He has been a big miss and part of the reason that Casemiro partners Evans tonight again at centre back. Have to say I’m surprised to see the Brazilian back there again after the shambles against Arsenal. Isak, Gordon and Murphy will be licking their lips.
Erik ten Hag speaks:
You have seen, the last games, we have academy players on the bench. Now we have players that can make the difference if they come on. They want to fight for this club.
On Hojlund being rested
We want to keep him fresh. It’s a long season for the young players. We have Brighton, we have a cup final.
Who will play up front instead?
You will see. Everything is possible [he says coyly with a smile]
On Casemiro starting at centre back.
He played some good games, some downfalls. Obviously in the last game [against Arsenal] there was a bad moment. We know he can do the job, so he has to do the job.
The teams!
Manchester United: Onana, Wan-Bissaka, Casemiro, Evans, Dalot, Mainoo, Amrabat, Diallo, McTominay, Garnacho, Bruno Fernandes.
Subs: Bayindir, Martinez, Rashford, Hojlund, Eriksen, Antony, Kambwala, Forson, Collyer.
Newcastle: Dubravka, Trippier, Krafth, Burn, Hall, Longstaff, Bruno Guimaraes, Anderson, Jacob Murphy, Isak, Gordon.
Subs: Dummett, Schar, Joelinton, Ritchie, Barnes, Pope, Almiron, White, Alex Murphy.
Referee: Robert Jones (Merseyside)
Preamble
What a funny predicament. Neither Manchester United (8th) nor Newcastle (6th) can reach the top four. Both would, one suspects, quite like to be in the Europa League (in which they need to finish 5th or 6th) – with the shiny prizes of European silverware and Champions League qualification for next season’s victors – but a spot in the Conference League (7th) is probably too much of a hassle. There’s not much grandeur in Europe’s third-tier competition, even for the two Uniteds, and there’s a good chance that a superfluous European campaign could (further?!) derail next season’s Premier League campaign. Newcastle will guarantee European football of some sort with a win tonight. Should Manchester United fail to win, they are almost certainly out of contention for any European qualification.
But as Spurs learned last night, rather than try to manoeuvre around the many permutations that may or may not be in your hands, the best move is simply to try and win all of your games, see what happens and live with the hand you are dealt.
Erik ten Hag is walking a very fine line indeed, and needs all the good PR he can get. A win for the Reds tonight would certainly help.
So, there isn’t much on the line tonight, apart from European qualification and potentially someone’s job, but I’m pleased you are here regardless.
Kick-off: 7pm BST.
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