Tonali clearly likes playing against Brentford. The Italian has scored four goals for Newcastle this season, three of which have come against the Bees. None of his previous strikes came close to matching last night’s effort for dramatic impact though, with Tonali somehow hammering the ball home from close to the right touchline after Harvey Barnes sent him away down the flank.
Perhaps he was crossing, but given that none of his team-mates were anywhere close to where the ball ended up, and that he appeared to adjust his body so that he could strike the ball towards Mark Flekken’s goal, maybe Tonali knew exactly what he was doing as he arrowed the ball towards the near post. Flekken certainly wasn’t expecting it, and therefore didn’t have a hope of keeping it out.
The goal, which came eight minutes after Bryan Mbeumo’s penalty had cancelled out Alexander Isak’s first-half opener, secured a valuable victory that lifted Newcastle into the top five ahead of tonight’s game between Chelsea and Tottenham.
Seventeen days on from their historic Wembley win, this was a case of back to business for Eddie Howe and his players. Triumphing in the Carabao Cup final might have guaranteed Newcastle a place in next season’s UEFA Conference League, but returning to the Champions League is the overriding aim in the final two months of the season. That means finishing in the top five, which in turn means having to take advantage of games like last night’s. It was a hard-fought encounter, but the Magpies got the job done.
Newcastle’s early play certainly did not betray any signs of a post-party hangover, with Tino Livramento breaking effectively down the left-hand side and his opposite full-back, Kieran Trippier, snapping into a series of early tackles on the right.
Livramento’s second-minute cross ended with an under-pressure Alexander Isak heading wide, while the left-back was heavily involved again ten minutes later, teeing up Joelinton for a low effort that flashed across the face of goal.
There was plenty of intensity to Newcastle’s first-half play, if anything, it was a degree of composure that was occasionally lacking. Passes were often hurried, with Brentford’s central midfielders happy to sit deep in order to pack out the heart of the pitch, and while the visitors showed precious little adventure early on, they gradually began to grow into the game and commit more bodies to their own counter-attacking.
Both Trippier and Fabian Schar made important first-half blocks in their own penalty area, and while Isak flashed a drive over the crossbar after Jacob Murphy robbed Ethan Pinnock of possession in his own half, the Magpies certainly weren’t getting things their own way as they looked to force a breakthrough.
Their best attacking moments tended to come down the left-hand side, although the fact that both Livramento and Barnes are right-footers who invariably want to step back inside onto their preferred foot meant much of their play on that side of the field was fairly predictable. Brentford’s Sepp van den Berg was hardly ever threatened on the outside.
The visitors were defensively shaky on occasions though, and an error from Pinnock almost enabled Newcastle to break the deadlock in the final minute of the first half. The centre-half misjudged a long ball forward, enabling Isak to break clear. The Swede looked certain to score when he turned inside a sliding Nathan Collins, but instead of shooting, he stood up a cross to the far post, where Barnes had strayed into an offside position before he was able to head home.
It was an uncharacteristic piece of bad decision-making from Isak, but Newcastle’s leading scorer made amends less than a minute later. Murphy swung over a cross from close to the right touchline, and when Mbeumo slipped close to his own six-yard box, Isak did not need a second invitation, pouncing to stab home a first-time volley.
The goal was Isak’s 20th league goal of the season, making him the first Newcastle player in Premier League history to score 20 or more league goals in consecutive campaigns. Even Alan Shearer did not achieve that feat.
With a lead to defend, the second half was largely about game-management from a home point of view. Schar and Dan Burn remained solid at the heart of the back four, with Joelinton providing a welcome degree of protection in front of them despite appearing to be suffering from a muscular issue for much of the game. With heavy strapping on his leg, the Brazilian needed treatment in the second half to get him through to the final whistle.
Brentford’s attacking play rarely looked like unlocking the Newcastle defence, but that changed in the 65th minute when the visitors were given a huge helping hand by Pope.
Yoane Wissa broke behind Burn to latch onto Mbeumo’s floated cross, but the forward was heading to the dead-ball line when Pope needlessly upended him. It was an obvious penalty, and Mbeumo stepped up to level the scores from the spot.
Thanks to Tonali, however, parity did not last long. Only the Italian will know what he was trying to do when Barnes rolled the ball into his path close to the right touchline. There was no one in the middle for him to pick out, so perhaps he was trying to beat Flekken at his near post. There was certainly no denying the cleanness of the strike, with Tonali hammering the ball past the Brentford goalkeeper as he frantically tried to scramble back into his goalmouth.