Talk about leaving it late. The game had entered the fifth minute of stoppage time when a counterattacking Joe Willock, introduced as a second-half substitute, accelerated down the left and crossed low towards the onrushing Bruno Guimarães. Within seconds that delivery had been deflected, leaving it bouncing kindly for Newcastle’s £33m Brazil midfielder to secure three precious points courtesy of a dramatic diving header and virtually extinguish any lingering relegation fears on Tyneside.
It was Guimarães’s second goal of a game in which he shone both in and, perhaps more importantly, out of possession. “We struggled to get hold of the ball today but Bruno was magnificent,” said Eddie Howe. “Bruno’s got that natural optimism and he’s elevated this team. He’s an incredibly passionate individual who cares deeply and is prepared to give you everything.”
Guimarães is also immensely gifted and highly intelligent. These two qualities would prove decisive as Howe’s side won a fifth successive home game – lifting them to 37 points, 12 clear of the relegation places – on an afternoon when they were often outpassed and outthought by a frequently impressive and extremely slick Leicester.
With Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall outstanding in an attacking midfield role, Brendan Rodgers’s team enjoyed lengthy spells of possession. “There were long periods when we didn’t have the ball and were under pressure,” acknowledged Howe. “But Bruno was brilliant in helping us keep our shape.”
Given Newcastle still created some decent chances it rather raised the question as to whether possession can be overrated. “Maybe today it was a bit,’ said Howe. “But long term we have to change – and short term I believe we’ve still got work to do to be completely safe.”
Newcastle’s manager is open about regarding Rodgers’s team, often wonderfully easy on the eye, as something of a stylistic template for his own players’ evolution. But Leicester’s defence is not exactly flawless and paid a high price for momentarily losing stoppage-time concentration when Daniel Amartey’s rather slapdash hoof in the direction of James Justin was easily intercepted.
“You don’t always get what you deserve in football and this was a case in point,’ said Rodgers, who was heavily linked with the Newcastle job following the club’s Saudi Arabian-led takeover last autumn. “For the majority of the game we had good control, we looked a real threat and I thought Eddie would have been happy with the point. But for some reason we didn’t control the ball at the very end.”
Only three of the XI that started Thursday’s win at PSV Eindhoven in their Europa League Conference quarter-final retained their places but such heavy rotation failed to prevent Leicester taking a 19th-minute lead. Newcastle had started so slowly it seemed they might have overdosed on Easter eggs and their defending was all over the place as Dewsbury-Hall directed a corner low to the near post. All that remained was for Ayoze Pérez to extend a leg and conjure a gorgeous flick which prefaced the unattended Ademola Lookman side-footing beneath the diving Martin Dubravka’s body from around 10 yards.
As Rodgers and his staff celebrated a goal evidently well rehearsed on the training ground, Newcastle fans sought solace by booing Pérez, a St James’ Park old boy.
By half-time jeers had turned to cheers. Although Kasper Schmeichel blocked an initial shot from Guimarães after Dan Burn flicked Jonjo Shelvey’s corner on, he let the ball slip from his grasp and, sensing opportunity, Guimarães slid in to squeeze it over the line at the second attempt.
At first Schmeichel seemed to have been fouled. The referee, Jarred Gillett, duly offered him the benefit of the doubt by disallowing it but a VAR review revealed a goalkeeping error and, having studied replays on his pitchside monitor, Gillett decreed that Guimarães had scored a legitimate goal after all.
The former Lyon playmaker marries a surfeit of skill with sheer bloody-minded determination and was not merely content to sparkle on the ball in the hazy Easter Sunday sunshine. Instead his equaliser proved emblematic of the manner in which January’s marquee signing dragged Newcastle back into the game, waking up certain dozy teammates along the way.
Yet Leicester’s capacity for not merely dominating but monopolising possession – even if they did not always do too much with it – ensured that the second half power balance swung back towards the visitors.
Indeed Kelechi Iheanacho might well have secured victory from Dewsbury-Hall’s cross but Burn blocked his shot and Newcastle clung on long enough for Willock and Guimarães to supply a dramatic final twist. “This is my home now,” said the latter. “I want to be a legend here.”
