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Newcastle United latest news: Sandro Tonali was ‘not very happy’ with Newcastle United’s performance during their Champions League win over Qarabag at St James’ Park.
A 6-1 win away in Baku was followed up by a 3-2 victory at St James’ Park as Newcastle United booked themselves a tie against either Chelsea or Barcelona in the last-16. However, that huge margin of victory and win in front of their own fans was not enough to satisfy Sandro Tonali.
Eddie Howe made six changes to his starting XI from the one that lined up at the Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, with Tonali one of the surprise inclusions from the off. The Italian international has always played a pivotal role in Howe’s team, but the absence of Bruno Guimaraes has significantly increased his importance in recent times.
Howe’s decision to start him was immediately justified as he was quickest to react to a loose ball in the penalty box to stab home an opening goal. Joelinton’s second just a few minutes later put the tie beyond any doubt.
Sandro Tonali reacts to Newcastle United’s win v Qarabag
Goals from Tonali and Joelinton was the perfect start for the Magpies and one that allowed Howe to eventually rotate and introduce players off the bench during the second half. Tonali, though, wanted more from his side on the night: “It was a very great game for the first 10 minutes,” he told Amazon Prime.
“I'm not very happy with the second half because we play just with the result because we scored nine goals but we had to do more because these fans deserve 100 per cent for 90 minutes every game. For me, the second half was very good but we can do 100 per cent more and we need to push every minute of the game.
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"The first thing was don't concede a goal and the second half first 10 minutes we concede the first goal and it was a stupid goal. Every time we concede a goal we are not happy. But finally we are happy because we pass through in the Champions League and we deserve this one because we trained a lot for this. Last season we worked very tough every day, every weekend to play Champions League this season, we deserve everything."
Newcastle United will discover who they will play in the last-16 of the Champions League on Friday when the draw for that round is conducted. The Magpies will also know who they will face in future rounds of the competition, should they progress beyond that stage.
They have, of course, played both Barcelona and Chelsea once already this season. Their clash against the La Liga giants kicked off their league phase of this competition and, until Camilo Duran netted for Qarabag tonight, were the only visiting team to have scored a Champions League goal at St James’ Park.
Chelsea, meanwhile, scored twice in December when they met in a Premier League match at St James’ Park. The Blues, under the control of Enzo Maresca at the time, recovered from two goals down to seal a point on Tyneside on that day.
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