Newcastle United have performed the function of party-poopers for Ange Postecoglou’s long-awaited homecoming to his native Melbourne on Wednesday evening.
The Magpies received their English Premier League pleasant towards Postecoglou’s Tottenham Hotspur 5-4 in a penalty shootout after the sport ended 1-1 after regulation time in entrance of 78,419 followers at a drizzly MCG.
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Contemplating the largest crowd for a aggressive match that Tottenham have performed in entrance of is 85,512, towards Bayer Leverkusen within the UEFA Champions League at Wembley in 2016/17, and Newcastle’s is 68,386 within the outdated First Division nearly a century in the past, it places into perspective simply how big the turnout was.
Information of a penalty shootout actually got here as a shock to Postecoglou who was clearly greatly surprised when he was knowledgeable of it as he looked for Newcastle counterpart Eddie Howe to shake his hand after the ultimate whistle.
The decisive second of the shootout got here with the primary spot kick when Bryan Gil’s shot was saved by Newcastle’s Mark Gillespie. Harrison Ashby scored the final penalty to ship the Magpies the win.
After a comparatively uneventful opening half-hour, Tottenham broke the impasse within the thirty second minute when Newcastle goalkeeper Nick Pope laconically gave the ball straight to James Maddison on a platter within the field.
The Spurs vice-captain obliged by zigzagging his approach by means of Newcastle’s defence and fired it previous Pope who acquired a hand on it however not sufficient to cease it from rippling the web.
Nonetheless, the objective ought to have been disallowed as a result of Maddison clearly used his hand to regulate the ball within the lead-up.
It wasn’t precisely Diego Maradona’s well-known ‘Hand of God’ objective, however with no VAR in operation, the objective stood.
Simply earlier than halftime, Newcastle equalised when Jacob Murphy crossed it right into a harmful space and whereas uncapped Spurs custodian Brandon Austin managed to get a hand to it, all he was in a position to do was place it proper onto the boot of Alexander Isak who guided it house from point-blank vary previous the grounded Austin.
Fiery begin
The pre-game leisure was nearly as eventful because the match itself.
Amid the myriad pyrotechnics, there was a powerful montage on the massive screens documenting Postecoglou’s profitable rise as a world-class supervisor all the way in which from South Melbourne to Spurs within the EPL.
There was a trumpeter’s rendition of “Oh When The Spurs Go Marching In”, and an enormous group of Newcastle followers on the Punt Street finish had been waving black-and-white flags in unison.
Whereas Postecoglou predictably obtained a large spherical of applause when he strutted out onto the hallowed turf, he was really upstaged by his captain Son Heung-min, who obtained the loudest cheer with a robust Korean contingent within the stands.
Kuol arrives
There was additionally first rate recognition from the gang for Newcastle’s Aussie product Garang Kuol when his identify acquired learn out over the PA, and he acquired an excellent greater cheer when he entered the sport within the 71st minute for his maiden Newcastle sport after spending his first season there on mortgage with Dutch facet Volendam.
He capped his first Newcastle look by scoring within the penalty shootout with a perfectly-placed shot that flew previous Spurs goalie Alfie Whiteman.
Stars come out
The match supplied a fantastic alternative for the Melbourne public to see a few of the world’s finest gamers up shut and private comparable to Newcastle duo Isak and Kieran Trippier in addition to Spurs pair Son and Maddison.
Son was industrious down the left and confirmed why he’s arguably the best Asian participant of all time as he created fairly a couple of threatening performs for Tottenham. He exited the sport after an hour to an enormous ovation. Tripper was subbed off within the thirty seventh minute after an honest, spritely shift.
