Heroic defending by Newcastle United ended Manchester United’s 100% start to the 2015/16 Barclays Premier League in a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford.
Wayne Rooney, who had not scored in eight league matches, began the match like a man on a mission as United subjected Newcastle to wave after wave of attack early on, but Louis van Gaal’s side failed to make the breakthrough and then laboured as the visitors’ confidence grew.
United ran out of ideas and it was Aleksandar Mitrovic, on his first start for Newcastle, who went closest to scoring, the Serb crashing a towering header onto Sergio Romero’s crossbar midway through the first half.
Javier Hernandez was introduced late on as a support act for Rooney and the Mexican could have snatched a winner with 11 minutes remaining but Tim Krul denied him from close range. In an end-to-end finish to the match both sides went agonisingly close to a winner, with Chris Smalling hitting a post with a header from a corner, only for Newcastle to break and their debutant Florian Thauvin almost diverted Papiss Cisse’s centre past Romero.
Van Gaal, who handed a first start to Bastian Schweinsteiger, saw his team dominate from the off and Rooney, now without a goal in his last 10 club matches in all competitions, had the ball in the net four minutes in after latching on to Adnan Januzaj’s through-ball, only to be denied by a tight offside call.
Rooney looked bright and led the charge as United poured forward in the first quarter of an hour. It felt like a matter of time before they broke Newcastle’s resistance, with Krul twice called into action to deny Juan Mata before Rooney tested the Dutchman from 20 yards. But Newcastle’s first real foray into United’s half after 24 minutes almost resulted in an unlikely opener, as Mitrovic’s superb header from Chancel Mbemba’s inch-perfect cross from the right hit the crossbar with Romero beaten.
United’s intensity dropped after their breathless start and Ayoze Perez’s snapshot had Romero scrambling across his goal just before the break. Memphis Depay was the catalyst for their midweek win over Club Brugge, but he could not get going here, having a wild shot well over the bar on the hour.
United failed to replicate their start to the first half after the interval and Van Gaal turned to Michael Carrick, in place of Schweinsteiger, and Hernandez in an attempt to lift his side. But, aside from Hernandez’s late chance that Krul got down well to save and Smalling’s header that hit an upright, United could not find a way through a well-drilled Newcastle backline as Steve McClaren’s team escaped with a hard-earned point after Thauvin had almost snatched all three.
Man Utd manager Louis van Gaal: “We can be satisfied about the performance but not the result because we don’t reward ourselves we have created a lot of chances and we were unlucky. You need luck in football; it’s not only what you call ‘quality’.
The quality in the third and fourth phase, the crossing positions, was not so good [but] I think as a team we played fantastic and we fought to the end, which is fantastic to see. I like these kind of games, only the result was bad.” Newcastle United head coach Steve McClaren: ” I’m delighted with both the performance and the result – surviving the first 20 minutes was the key to the game, and to go in at half-time at 0-0 gave us a chance. “We always know that after Europe, the game on the Saturday can be difficult.
You have to score in the first 20 minutes and they went all out for that. We survived that and grew into the game and we could have nicked it. “Attitude, defensively, organisation, discipline – [we showed] all the things you need to get a result away from home, especially here.”
source:premierleague.com
STUDIO 3 NEWCASTLE AUSTRALIA 