Newcastle Toons
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Friendly in Spain: Newcastle 1-1 CSKA Moscow

By Durim Halimi

NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 14: A view of the Newcastle United Football Club Badge during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Southampton at St James' Park on December 14, 2013 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images)
NEWCASTLE UPON TYNE, ENGLAND - DECEMBER 14: A view of the Newcastle United Football Club Badge during the Barclays Premier League match between Newcastle United and Southampton at St James' Park on December 14, 2013 in Newcastle upon Tyne, England. (Photo by Tony Marshall/Getty Images) /
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Newcastle United created enough chances to win this match, but both teams finished level after 90 minutes of action.

Newcastle United concluded their week-long trip in Spain with a friendly match against Russian giants CSKA Moscow today, a match which ended in a 1-1 draw at the Pinatar Arena. Rafa Benitez deployed a 3-4-2-1 formation for this match and the Spaniard dished out the following starting line up:

Karl Darlow, DeAndre Yedlin, Fabian Schar, Jamaal Lascelles, Florian Lejeune, Antonio Barreca, Ki Sung-yueng, Mohamed Diame, Kenedy, Miguel Almiron and Salomon Rondon. Ciaran Clark and Jonjo Shelvey trained in full sessions all week, but the duo were left out of the squad for today’s friendly.

In the second half, Benitez changed the team in order to give all 22 players a chance to play. The following players took the field after the break: Freddie Woodman, Javier Manquillo, Isaac Hayden, Federico Fernandez, Paul Dummett, Matt Ritchie, Ayoze Perez, Yoshinori Muto, Christian Atsu, Sean Longstaff and Joselu.

What We Learned

  • Yedlin and Barreca enjoyed the game as they had plenty of flexibility to overlap runs to be heavily involved in the attack. CSKA Moscow tried to exploit Barreca on the wing when they attacked, but the Italian loanee did well to hold his own on the left side.
  • Rondon is simply on fire as he scored a beautiful goal in the box in the 15th minute. The Venezuelan international is proving to be the most important player for the Magpies and his early goal against CSKA Moscow will boost his confidence even more against a Huddersfield side that has conceded 48 goals this season.
  • Almiron looked great in his second match for Newcastle. No, it was not against a Premier League opponent, but the attacking midfielder looked good against a Champions League side. He did well to set his teammates up with great passes in the box, ran around defenders with his pace and almost scored a goal.
  •  Darlow was unlucky to concede a goal in the 41st minute as he made a brilliant save, but was helpless against the tap-in that was immediately put in by Abel Hernandez. Martin Dubravka should still be the team’s primary man between the sticks.

Final Note

Overall, this match felt like a friendly from start to finish as Newcastle did their best to implement tactics from training, while CSKA Moscow looked to shake off their rust as they are currently in mid-season break. This match does not mean much, but it should serve as a confidence builder ahead of next weekend’s match with Huddersfield. Newcastle played well and looked comfortable on both sides of the ball in both halves.