Despite their possession, City haven’t been able to make it count in front of goal, with Newcastle looking very dangerous on the counter and both of their goals have come after quick breaks.
It’s been a thrilling end-to-end game here at St James’ Park, with Newcastle taking a surprise lead through Krafth and Shelvey almost made it two, with his free-kick crashing against the crossbar. However, City hit back and two goals in three minutes fired them ahead, through Cancelo and Torres, so it looked like they would lead at the break. However, there was late drama, as VAR awarded Newcastle a penalty following a challenge on Joelinton by Ake and the striker then stepped up to convert the spot-kick, to make it 2-2.
45′ + 8′ HALF-TIME: NEWCASTLE UNITED 2-2 MANCHESTER CITY
45′ + 6′ GOOOAAALLL! Joelinton makes no mistake from the penalty spot, smashing the ball into the back of the net and he makes it 2-2! The striker won the penalty, after being brought down by Ake and then stepped up to convert it, with Carson having no chance of stopping it.
45′ + 5′ NEWCASTLE PENALTY! VAR double check the offside decision and it shows that Saint-Maximin was definitely onside, so they then move it on to look at the possible foul and it does look like Ake slides in and brings Joelinton down, catching his right foot. What an opportunity for Newcastle to equalise.
45′ + 4′ PENALTY SHOUT! Newcastle break forward quickly once again and Saint-Maximin sneaks in behind, just staying onside, he then gets to the penalty area and lays it off to Joelinton, who takes on Ake and goes down after a sliding tackle from the defender. Nothing is given by the referee, but VAR will take a look.
45′ + 2′ City are pressing forward in search of a third goal now, but they need to be careful at the back as Newcastle still look dangerous on the counter.
45′ There will be a minimum of three minutes added time played at the end of the first half.
44′ Rodri is booked after he brings down Willock.
43′ There is a VAR check on the City goal, just to make sure that Torres wasn’t offside when the free-kick was whipped into the box. However, it all looks fine and the goal will stand.
42′ Gundogan with another lovely delivery into the penalty area and Torres beats his marker at the near post to fire City into the lead.
42′ GOOOAAALLL! City take the lead, what a finish from Torres to make it 2-1! Gundogan delivers a lovely free-kick into the penalty area from the left wing and Torres shows great skill, to acrobatically flick it into the back of the net. It’s just out of the reach of Dubravka as it loops over him.
40′ There isn’t long left to play before the end of the first half, can either side get a second goal before the half-time whistle?
39′ Rodri gets forward down the left wing, as City keep Newcastle penned back, he gets to the byline and then sends it back to Cancelo, who drills it into the back of the net.
39′ GOOOAAALLL! City have the equaliser, Cancelo makes it 1-1! The visitors press forward and keep pushing, not allowing Newcastle to get out of their own box and the ball falls to Cancelo on the edge of the box to the left and he drills a low strike towards goal, which takes a big deflection off Murphy, sending it flying into the bottom right corner of the net. Dubravka couldn’t do anything about it.
38′ Newcastle have opened the scoring in a home Premier League game against Man City for the first time since September 2005.
36′ The first yellow card of the game is shown to Ritchie as he deliberately brings Jesus down, to stop a City attack.
35′ OFF THE BAR! Shelvey steps up to take a Newcastle free-kick, it’s in an excellent shooting position and the midfielder goes for goal, getting it up and over the City wall and it appears to be heading into the back of the net. However, it cannons off the crossbar and City then clear the danger. Superb strike.
34′ Stoppage in play here as Rodri is down with a head injury following a collision in the box, there seems to be a bit of blood, but he should be fine to continue.
33′ Another quick Newcastle counter and Almiron breaks up the pitch, he gets into the final third and Ake dives in and brings him down, handing the hosts a free-kick in a good position.
32′ Decent effort! Gundogan steps up to take a free-kick around 25 yards out, he drills it low and hard towards the bottom right corner, but Dubravka reads it well and makes the save.
31′ We’re past the half an hour mark now and it remains Newcastle who lead 1-0, thanks to Krafth’s header a few minutes ago. It will be interesting to see if Newcastle now just defend to hold their lead, or push on to get a second.
29′ Willock races forward on the counter-attack, skipping past Cancelo, but his pass to a team-mate is poor and City get numbers back and clear the danger.
27′ City are trying to increase the tempo of their game now, they will be surprised to go behind and need to show more intent in the final third to test Dubravka more.
25′ Shelvey whipped a lovely ball into the penalty area with plenty of pace. Krafth just had to get his head on it, and he produced an excellent header.
25′ GOOOAAALLL! Newcastle take a surprise lead, it’s 1-0! Shelvey sends an excellent corner delivery into the box and Krafth rises above Ake to power a header into the back of the net, with Carson having no chance of stopping it. Completely against the run of play, with City dominating, but the hosts are in front.
24′ BLOCKED! Good counter by Newcastle! Krafth delivers a long ball over the top for Saint-Maximin to get on the edge of it after a City corner. It is then played across to Joelinton, who takes on Walker, but the right-back does brilliantly to make the block and send it out for a corner.
22′ Carson makes his first Premier League appearance since May 2011, a gap of 9 years 357 days. It is the sixth longest gap between PL appearances, and the longest ever by a goalkeeper.
20′ Cancelo cuts in from the left wing and fires a low strike towards the bottom left corner of the net from the edge of the box. However, Dubravka reads it well and makes a good save, as the ball bounced dangerously in front of him.
19′ Due to all the changes at the back for City, you would think that Saint-Maximin would fancy a battle up top and could certainly cause some problems. However, he has hardly touched the ball so far.
17′ Despite all of their possession, City haven’t yet tested Dubravka in the Newcastle goal, who is yet to have a save to make, with all of the City shots flying wide so far.
15′ Newcastle just can’t get out of their own half at the moment, they are struggling to string a couple of passes together and when they do win it back, it is coming straight back at them.
13′ Decent chance! Gundogan creates the attack, sliding the ball through to Cancelo down the left wing and he sneaks past Murphy and drills it to Torres at the near post. However, he goes at it with the wrong foot and his effort flies well wide.
12′ The visitors are camped inside the Newcastle half of the pitch at the moment, there isn’t much pace to the game though, with City not showing too much attacking intent so far.
10′ Newcastle have won one of their last 26 Premier League matches against Manchester City (D4 L21), winning 2-1 in January 2019 despite going behind in the opening minute.
8′ Decent effort! Newcastle fail to deal with a long ball over the top and it falls to Jesus on the edge of the box, who controls it and then volleys an effort towards the top left corner of the net. However, it flies wide.
7′ Wild effort! Ake with the first strike at goal, after Rodri flicks it on to him on the edge of the penalty area, but the defenders strike flies well wide of the Newcastle goal.
5′ There are a few players missing for City today, Kevin De Bruyne is still on the sidelines with an injury and Sergio Aguero doesn’t feature at all in the squad. They will be hoping that they are back for the Champions League final at the end of the month.
3′ As you might expect, it is City who are dominating the early possession here, keeping it well in the middle of the pitch, with the hosts already having to sit deep to soak up the pressure.
The teams are out on the pitch and kick-off is just a few minutes away, stay tuned for all the match action!
Carson makes his first start in over two years, as he replaces Ederson in goal. Pep Guardiola has made four other changes to his side, with Dias, Laporte, Mendy and Sergio Aguero dropping out of the team and they have been replaced by Walker, Garcia, Silva and Gundogan.
Bruce makes just one change to his starting line-up, with Callum Wilson dropping out of the team after picking up an injury, so he has been replaced by Joelinton.
MAN CITY SUBS: Zack Steffen, Ruben Dias, John Stones, Aymeric Laporte, Benjamin Mendy, Fernandinho, Riyad Mahrez, Phil Foden, Cole Palmer.
MAN CITY (4-3-3): Scott Carson; Kyle Walker, Eric Garcia, Nathan Ake, Joao Cancelo; Bernardo Silva, Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan; Ferran Torres, Gabriel Jesus, Raheem Sterling.
NEWCASTLE UTD SUBS: Mark Gillespie, Ciaran Clark, Matthew Longstaff, Andy Carroll, Dwight Gayle, Jamal Lewis, Jeff Hendrick, Javier Manquillo, Sean Longstaff.
NEWCASTLE UTD (5-3-2): Martin Dubravka; Jacob Murphy, Emil Krafth, Federico Fernandez, Paul Dummett, Matt Ritchie; Joe Willock, Jonjo Shelvey, Miguel Almiron; Allan Saint-Maximin, Joelinton.
Newcastle secured their Premier League survival after they beat Leicester City 4-2 last time out, to move up to 16th in the table on 39 points. They had an excellent April, going unbeaten and picking up eight points, which led to Steve Bruce being awarded April’s manager of the month.
Manchester City clinched the Premier League title on Tuesday, after Manchester United suffered a defeat, making City the Champions. This is their second trophy of the season, having already clinched the EFL Cup and they will Chelsea in the Champions League final at the end of May. However, they did face the Blues at the weekend in the league and suffered a 2-1 defeat.
Hello and welcome to our LIVE match commentary of the Premier League clash between Newcastle United and Manchester City at St James’ Park.
