Manchester City’s disappointing season ended with the consolation of a place in the Champions League after a 2-0 victory at Fulham, earned by Ilkay Gundogan’s overhead kick and an Erling Haaland penalty.
The victory ensured City finish third in the table with 71 points from 38 games, the first time they have ended outside the top two since the 2016-17 season. Fulham finished 11th with 54 points.
City opened the scoring on 21 minutes when Matheus Nunes’s chipped shot on the angle was clawed away by Fulham goalkeeper Bernd Leno and into the path of Gundogan, whose acrobatic effort steered the ball into the net off the crossbar.
The visitors doubled their advantage when Sasa Lukic fouled Gundogan in the box and Haaland converted the spot kick to score his 22nd league goal of the campaign, while Kevin De Bruyne came off the bench for the final five minutes in his farewell to City.
Newcastle United squeezed into the Champions League places despite losing 1-0 to Everton at home, thanks to Manchester United’s 2-0 home win over Aston Villa.
The Magpies ended up in fifth place on 66 points, edging out Villa on goal difference.
The final whistle led to a nervous wait at St James’s Park as the game continued at Old Trafford, with confirmation of Villa’s defeat bringing a roar of joy and relief as the Champions League hymn was played to celebrate Newcastle’s return to Europe’s premier competition.
Newcastle dominated throughout but were undone by poor finishing and sloppy passing. Their struggles were encapsulated in a 38th-minute tongue-lashing administered by defender Fabian Schar to teammate Jacob Murphy, who dawdled across the midfield before carelessly giving away the ball.
The home side had their chances but their final ball into the box was often poor and any efforts they did manage to get on goal were comfortably dealt with by Jordan Pickford in the Everton goal.
Newcastle were eventually punished for giving away the ball once too often in the centre of the pitch in the 65th minute, with Everton's Vitaliy Mykolenko crossing for Carlos Alcaraz to score with a brilliant header.
_Reuters_