**Newcastle United thoroughly put Benfica to the sword in the Champions League last night, and it would take some serious nitpicking on our part to come up with any real negatives.**
To a man, we thought Newcastle were excellent last night. Of course, pobody's nerfect, and it wasn't as if we were expecting anyone to give everyone a 10/10 with their player ratings.
We especially didn't expect Portuguese media to blow smoke up our collective rears, but we think there may be a bit of bitterness involved when [A Bola came up with their ratings for Eddie Howe's men.](https://www.abola.pt/noticias/gordon-foi-cabeca-de-cartaz-no-festival-preto-e-branco-as-notas-do-newcastle-2025102121161861759)
Poor Dan Burn got slapped with a rating of 5/10 after being tortured by Belgian winger Dodi Lukebakio for most of the game, and while it's fair to say that Burn did struggle against the Benfica No. 11, a 5/10 is a harsh rating, especially given how close he came to scoring on more than one occasion, but okay, we can see the logic there.
Malick Thiaw was done dirty by A Bola
However, when it came to Malick Thiaw, they handed the German a rating of 4/10 and we can't for the life of us understand why.
A Bola at least offered some context for why they rated Dan Burn a five, but they didn't even mention Thiaw in their write-up and just slapped the Newcastle defender with a shockingly low rating.
The Magpies kept a clean sheet last night, so it's not as if he made a catastrophic error that cost us a goal or anything like that.
Did we miss something in Malick Thiaw's game against Benfica?
* Yes, he was pants and deserved 4/10
* No. We have no idea what A Bola are smoking
Does anyone know what A Bola were thinking?
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In fact, Benfica's best chances came from Dodi Lukebakio, which, as we've already established, was a Dan Burn problem.
If anyone can tell us what Malick Thiaw did last night that saw him deserves this low rating, please let us know. Answers on a postcard to "What was A Bola thinking? Newcastle Upon Tyne, NE1 4T"
It really is fascinating how two people can watch the same game and come away with very different conclusions.