Wasted chances doom Newcastle against Crystal Palace

Newcastle United fall at home to Crystal Palace despite dominating the entire match.

Newcastle United and Crystal Palace certainly woke up after both teams lost to Arsenal and Tottenham earlier in the week. St. James’ Park was booming and the Magpies pressed forward to create several scoring chances. In the end, however, wasted chances led to dropped points. A late penalty from Luka Milivojevic secured three undeserved points for Crystal Palace on the road.

First Half

Crystal Palace wasted no time attacking Newcastle as they almost scored from inside the penalty box in the first 75 seconds of action. Fortunately for the Magpies, Jeffrey Schlupp’s shot went just wide of Martin Dubravka’s goal.

Newcastle began to wake up after the eighth minute of action as they sent more bodies forward and applied more pressure. Isaac Hayden had a decent look at goal in the tenth minute, but his strike from distance was saved with ease by Vicente Guaita. Newcastle had another chance to score two minutes later, but some confusion from Salomon Rondon and Fabian Schar in the box led to a wasted opportunity.

The Magpies scored in the 14th minute through Rondon, but the assistant official raised the flag to indicate that Rondon was offside. Newcastle started to look more creative and comfortable offensively as they created six chances in the first 16 minutes. Ritchie came close to scoring in the first second of the 16th minute, but his shot from a tight angle was saved and went out for a corner.

Palace almost took the lead through Michy Batshuayi in the 22nd minute as his header forced Dubravka to make a save with his wrist, but the offside flag was raised after the save was made. The next chance in the game came from Ki Sung-yueng in the 27th minute. The South Korean international struck the ball from way out, but his attempt was easily saved.

Two minutes later it was Newcastle on the front foot once again. DeAndre Yedlin delivered a good, diagonal cross for Rondon in the box, but the Venezuelan’s header was off target. Rondon was a threat once more in the 33rd minute as he fired a shot five feet away from the goal, but his shot went straight into the hip of Guaita.

Things settled down a bit until Crystal Palace scored in the 41st minute off a corner kick, but as the visitors celebrated, the referees came to the conclusion that the goal was offside. It was a first half comprised of several chances for Newcastle and two lucky breaks for both sides due to the offside flag.

Second Half

Newcastle picked up where they left off in the first half by attacking Crystal Palace from the start. The Magpies earned a corner in the 46th minute, but nothing meaningful came from it. The visitors also had a chance in the first three minutes, but their headed attempt curled way wide of the goal.

Ayoze Perez should have opened the scoring in the 51st minute as a cross landed beautifully for him, but his shot, which did take a deflection, looked like it was going to go over. 30 seconds later, it was Florian Lejeune who fired in a powerful header from the corner kick, but Guaita made an impressive save to keep the score 0-0.

Like Lejeune, Yedlin was almost an unlikely scorer for Newcastle in the 57th minute. Miguel Almiron found Yedlin at the edge of the box and the American aimed the for top corner, but narrowly sent the ball over the bar.  In an unfortunate change of events, Lejeune went down to the ground holding his knee in midfield and was carried off the pitch in a stretcher by the medical staff. Paul Dummett came on as his replacement.

The level urgency certainly picked up around the 65-minute mark as four fouls were called in a period of three minutes. Newcastle continued to press forward as Palace altered their tactics by defending more. Jonjo Shelvey came on for Ki in the 76th minute in an attempt to get fresh legs involved in the attack.

Crystal Palace were awarded a penalty in the 79th minute after Yedlin tackled Wilfried Zaha in the box. The visitors took the lead a minute leader as Luke Milivojevic buried the penalty kick. Newcastle reacted well after conceding by attacking in full force, but they failed to find an equalizer. Wasted chances doomed the Magpies yet again in a match that they dominated from start to finish.