Eddie Howe hails Sandro Tonali’s ‘big moment’ in Newcastle’s win over Brentford | OneFootball

Eddie Howe hailed Sandro Tonali’s shooting power after seeing him cap a fine display with a stunning winner to edge Newcastle into the race for Champions League qualification.

The 24-year-old Italy international brought an incident-packed encounter to a fitting conclusion with a 74th-minute piledriver which beat goalkeeper Mark Flekken from an improbable angle to hand the Magpies a precious 2-1 home win over Brentford.

Bees boss Thomas Frank later described Tonali’s winner as a “one in a million cross”, but when asked about the goal afterwards, Howe said: “Let me say one thing about Sandro: he can hit a ball like no-one. When he strikes it, I fear for our goalkeepers’ wrists sometimes because he can hit it that hard, so I wouldn’t put it past him meaning that.

“It was a big moment in the game because we needed it. At that moment, the game was very much in the balance, so it’s a big moment in our season.”

Tonali himself, however, admitted there was an element of fortune to his decisive strike.

He said: “It was definitely a good shot – but it was 70 per cent cross, I am going to be honest with you. It was perfect, the speed. I was a little bit lucky because the keeper was not in the goal.”

A victory which lifted the Carabao Cup winners into fifth place – Chelsea could replace them on Thursday evening – left them very much in the hunt for the Champions League places.

They had edged ahead in a firecracker of a game when seconds after Harvey Barnes had headed home at the end of a brilliant Alexander Isak run, but from an offside position, the Sweden international turned in Jacob Murphy’s cross past Flekken to open the scoring.

Bryan Mbeumo’s cool second-half penalty restored parity and Ethan Pinnock headed against a post as the visitors pressed, only to be caught out by Tonali’s outrageous strike.

Howe, who revealed he was unsure how his side would respond in the first game back since their big day at Wembley, said: “I was really hoping the players would be professional, but Wembley behind them and move forward and work, and we did – and we had to work.

“I think it was a massive win in our season. Credit to everybody because that wasn’t an easy game.”

For Frank, it was a case of what might have been as his side fell on the wrong side of a series of pivotal moments, including a late claim for a second penalty for Bruno Guimaraes’ challenge on substitute Mikkel Damsgaard which went unanswered.

He said: “If you want to win a game like this – just like any game, but to win a tight game against a good team – you need some of the margins to go your way.

“The first goal, Bryan [Mbeumo] slips. If he doesn’t slip, he kicks the ball away in front of Isak; Ethan, inside of the post; Tonali, one in a million cross going in the goal, and for me, the Damsgaard penalty.

“Unfortunately, we got on the wrong end of that, but the performance, I’m very pleased with it.”