Schar and Perez secure big win for Newcastle United

Goals from Fabian Schar and Ayoze Perez secured three crucial points for Newcastle United against Cardiff City.

Today’s relegation battle between Newcastle United and Cardiff City was of major importance for both teams, but the Magpies got the job done thanks to two goals from Fabian Schar. Cardiff City were never in this match as Newcastle dominated in every aspect of the game. The Magpies showed that they are determined to avoid relegation with a big win at home against direct relegation rivals. It was an eventful match and here is how things played out.

First Half

The first ten minutes of this match were dominated by Newcastle in terms of maintaining possession, pressing high and forcing Cardiff City to make ill-advised passes. The visitors were scrappy in midfield, but their new loanee from Everton, Oumar Niasse, was left in the shadows up top. After earning a corner kick in the 12th minute, Newcastle came close to scoring, but a strong header from Ayoze Perez was punched over the bar by Neil Etheridge.

Newcastle continued to attack through Perez and the Spaniard saw a flicked pass hit the arm of defender Joe Bennett, but the referee turned away and refused to grant the home side with a penalty kick in the 18th minute. Cardiff City were still chasing the ball after 20 minutes of action as Newcastle did well spreading the ball around and this was reflected with their impressive passing accuracy of 91%.

The 23rd minute saw Newcastle score their goal of the season through Fabian Schar. The Swiss defender took the ball from the edge of midfield, ran past multiple defenders and curled a well-composed shot into the side netting to gift his team with the lead.

Cardiff City had no reaction after conceding that goal. It was Newcastle that continued to dominate the match on all fronts. Cardiff City’s keeper had a relatively quiet first half since the Magpies only took four shots, but his back-line was under constant pressure from Matt Ritchie, Christian Atsu, Sean Longstaff, Ayoze Perez and Salomon Rondon.

Second Half

The first ten minutes of the second were full of duels in midfield, and it was Newcastle that kept their foot on the gas pedal. The Magpies looked to attack multiple times down both flanks, but there were no meaningful attacks. The first dangerous attack from either side came in the 57th minute when Perez was inches away from scoring after being one-on-one with Etheridge, but the keeper managed to make a big save with his shoulder.

The second goal did not come long after as Schar used his shin to score from a bouncing corner kick in the 62nd minute. Schar was brilliant all game and he was rewarded with two unlikely goals. Newcastle kept the attacking momentum going as Rondon almost made it 3-0 in the 65th minute, but his shot was deflected out for a corner. 30 seconds later, it was Schar who was inches away from scoring a hat-trick with a powerful header that grazed the net.

After conceding the second goal, Cardiff City looked like they were ready to go home as they merely ran around waiting for the final whistle. At the 70 minute mark, the visitors only had a total of four shot attempts, but none of them were on target.

Newcastle managed to score a third goal in stoppage time. Rondon set Perez up in the 92nd minute for an easy tap-in goal. Cardiff City had absolutely no chance in this match and the 3-0 score is a proper reflection of that.