· 9 August 2025, 18:10
**Atletico Madrid can now boast of being only the second team to ever lift the prestigious Super Cup as they beat Newcastle United 2-0 at St James' Park on Saturday afternoon.**
Goals from Julian Alvarez and Antoine Griezmann were enough to see off Eddie Howe's Newcastle, with both goals coming in the second half as a result of being hit on the break.
Atleti scored after recovering the ball from a Newcastle corner and running up the other end on a two v one and scoring the type of goal that if your mate scored against you on FIFA back in the day, you'd unplug his controller and kick him out of the house. That's right, kids, controllers used to have wires.
Their second was pretty similar, another quick breakaway with the ball falling to Antoine Griezmann, who flicked an absolutely sublime finish beyond Nick Pope.
> [](https://twitter.com/CraigHope_DM/status/1954222021685981385)
Anthony Gordon pulled up with a hamstring injury to add the sprinkles on top of the cherry on the pre-season cake
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Despite going into this one with a bit of hope that Newcastle could muster up some nice attacking football, there was once again absolutely no end product in the final third. Joe Wellington, sorry, Joelinton, missed a handful of half chances, but Newcastle never created anything that looked close to being a real goal-scoring opportunity.
Anthony Elanga continues to look class at least. His pace is absolutely unbelievable. If only he had a final ball.
I've personally never been a fan of playing Anthony Gordon through the middle; he is absolutely not a centre-forward, but given our current circumstances, I was okay with it, but now even that has been taken away from us by the looks of things.
Late in the game, Gordon looked visibly uncomfortable, but instead of being proactive and getting him off the pitch, he remained out there to go ahead and seemingly pull his hamstring when running for the ball. It didn't look great, and now we're facing the prospect of having Will Osula starting against Aston Villa with Sean Neave as backup.
Remember Garang Kuol?
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Another question is, what does Garang Kuol have to do to get some minutes? Newcastle are crying out for a striker. Sean Neave has done less than nowt in pre-season when he's been deployed, so why not give the Aussie a go?
A winless pre-season has now come to an end with less than a week until we take on Aston Villa in the Premier League, and I couldn't feel any less confident if I tried.
Thankfully, there's still time to get some players in, and it does look like we're moving closer to a signing this weekend, with reports touting that a deal is close for Malick Thiaw.