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Pep Guardiola had Omar Marmoush in the tightest of bear hugs and seemed strangely unwilling to release the smiling Egyptian.
It was the 73rd minute and two goals from the newly withdrawn Marmoush, the second a real show stopper, and another from Savinho had enabled Manchester City to come from behind and potentially shatter Newcastle’s entire season.
As Guardiola’s team secured a fifth-round FA Cup passage that continues their advance on four fronts Eddie Howe’s campaign could hinge on his players overcoming Barcelona in their impending Champions League tie.
This was Newcastle’s fifth meeting with City this season and, despite a deceptively powerful start, it contained plenty of clues as to not only why Guardiola’s team have won four of their encounters but why Howe’s team are a modest 12th in the Premier League.
City’s flight from the north west did not land in Newcastle until early on Saturday afternoon and Erling Haaland was not on it. With Wednesday’s Champions League visit to Real Madrid beckoning Guardiola made 10 changes from the side that began last Wednesday’s Premier League draw against Nottingham Forest and said Haaland was being “rested.” Matheus Nunes was the sole survivor from the Forest game but, after initially being teased and tormented by Harvey Barnes, probably wished he had been left at home too.
Given that his team host Barcelona here in another European showpiece first leg round of 16 tie on Tuesday night, Howe, too, made some significant alterations to the XI that overcame Manchester United on Wednesday.
While Anthony Gordon, Joelinton and Dan Burn rested their legs on the bench, Will Osula, scorer of a dramatic 90th minute winner against Michael Carrick’s side, was offered a rare start at centre forward. That decision left Nick Woltemade, currently Germany’s first-choice central striker, deployed in midfield where, not for the first time, he struggled badly.
Guardiola was extremely unhappy with the 8pm kick-off time here that dictated City would arrive home in the early hours of Sunday morning, thereby cutting into preparation time for their excursion to the Bernabéu but at least all the changes offered Savinho a chance to prove he is fully fit again and perhaps ready to start in Madrid. This mini audition involved the normally impeccable home left-back Lewis Hall at times being stretched to the limit by City’s outstanding Brazilian winger.
Newcastle though had generally started well, with their high intensity game fazing Guardiola’s defence while provoking plenty of chaos in the visiting penalty area. Shortly after Nico González cleared a Woltemade header off the line Barnes gave Newcastle the lead.
After connecting with Sandro Tonali’s sublime pass down the left, Barnes proceeded to cut inside on his right foot and, played onside by Abdukodir Khusanov, curved a shot beyond James Trafford’s reach.
Barnes recently rejected the chance to play for Scotland at the World Cup but a winger also eligible for England may be more receptive to any similar overtures from Thomas Tuchel. Watching from the executive seats here, England’s manager can only have been impressed by that finish.
Newcastle deserved their lead but subsequently lived dangerously and Tijjani Reijnders missing several presentable chances for Guardiola’s team.
Then, when the home attacking ferocity abated a little, City’s slicker, sharper passing to feet began coming to the fore. Savinho seemed at the vanguard of most of their best moves and appropriately enough he equalised.
Not that Savinho, for once, was overly involved in a goal that involved the increasingly impressive Jérémy Doku’s superlative ball in behind the defence bouncing off his shin before confounding Aaron Ramsdale. It had all begun with Doku dropping a shoulder and tricking Kieran Trippier before Ramsdale misread his delivery into the box.
It proved the cue for Howe’s defence to suffer a sequence of severe wobbles. Newcastle’s manager recently admitted his erratic team can be “wildly inconsistent within games” and this appeared another prime example.
Two minutes into the second half Marmoush shot City ahead. When the, by now much improved Nunes crossed from the right, Nico O’Reilly misjudged the ball’s flight but it still fell to Marmoush and the Egypt striker delighted in lashing his shot into the roof of the net.
On came Joelinton, Burn and Yoane Wissa but, almost immediately, Marmoush scored again. This time, another Nunes delivery prefaced the forward unleashing a high velocity shot into the top corner from the edge of the area that left Ramsdale utterly helpless.
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