Crucible Brings Some Midweek Matchday 14 Madness | OneFootball

Sure, the headlining match will be the record-breaking craziness of Fulham vs. Manchester City, but there were two other fixtures today as well.

Newcastle United 2 – 2 Tottenham Hotspur

After a stolid and uneventful 70 minutes, this match blossomed into an absolute cracker. Twice Newcastle took the lead; twice Spurs dragged them back level.

Newcastle’s first goal was courtesy of Bruno Guimarães, who struck a lovely sidefooter low and hard into the side netting off a Nick Woltemade pass. The Brazilian came on as a second half sub, but wasn’t the only replacement player to have an impact. The two Anthony’s (Gordon and Elanga) sparked new energy into the Magpies as they came onto the pitch. When Dan Burn was wrestled to the ground on a corner, Gordon stepped up to take the resulting spot kick and did not fail. 

But the superhero on the night was Spurs’ center back Cristian Romero. Taking a page from Arsenal’s set-piece mastery, the captain scored the first from a Mohammed Kudus corner with a diving header to bring his team back equal at one apiece. After conceding the penalty, he furiously urged his side to rally back. Four minutes into stoppage time, Spurs earned another corner. Despite being dragged to ground, Romero sprang back up to chase the cleared ball. He wound up for an overhead kick, which he indelicately struck with his spin. But the shot was true, passing two Newcastle defenders and Aaron Ramsdale, once again pulling the sides level.

If not for Romero, Spurs’ manager Thomas Frank might be facing more hard questions. The team’s xG was only 0.79 (overhead kicks are not a high percentage shot), and they managed only 8 shots (2 on target). Newcastle outpassed (423 to 378), outshot (19 total, 7 on target) and and outpossessed Tottenham. But in the crucial metric, both sides came up square.

Bournemouth 0 – 1 Everton

All you really need to know about this match is the only goal was scored off a deflection. Jack Grealish still gets the credit since the original angle of his shot was on frame, but Djordje Petrović was already committed to that side and could not adjust in time to stop the deflected strike.

Bournemouth’s recent form is terrible. Source: Sofascore

This was Bournemouth’s fourth loss in five matches. The Cherries are in a complete freefall, now sitting in 14th place after being in 2nd back in Matchweek 9. If their Crucible campaign continues in this vein, they could be sitting just above the relegation zone and looking nervously over their shoulder.