Alejandro Grimaldo denies Newcastle a win against Bayer Leverkusen
Despite a valiant comeback from Newcastle United, Alejandro Grimaldo's 88th-minute equaliser denied Newcastle the chance of re-entering the top eight in the Champions League.
Alejandro Grimaldo’s 88th-minute equaliser earned Bayer Leverkusen a point and denied Newcastle United a second away win in the Champions League.
The Magpies showed worrying problems ahead of an incoming fixture run that starts with the Tyne-Wear Derby.
Here, Sports News Blitz writer Mosaddek Abu reflects on a disappointing result for Eddie Howe.
Failure to take chances hurts Magpies
Failure to take chances is a new problem that has followed Newcastle in recent games, especially against Leverkusen.
Newcastle had a one-goal lead but failed to kill the match.
Anthony Gordon, who had a stellar game, rattled the post. Mailick Thiaw, who scored a great header against Everton, had the chance to repeat it and headed it for an easy Mark Fleggen save. The ball fell to Jacob Murphy, who had a pop at the post and rattled it.
They should have killed the game, but instead, we saw a situation similar to what we have witnessed in the Premier League this season.
Newcastle worked themselves back into a position of control; they were on the front foot and dangerous on the attack.
But all that hard work, they let it self-implode on them by not burying their chances because one moment of sloppiness and Leverkusen snuck away with a point.
Newcastle should have come away with all three; they finished the game with a 2.07 xG, and given the chances they had, there should have been more goals than the two they scored.
The toon dodged a bullet last time out against Burnley, albeit had a late scare, but still scored three points.
Against a side that’s well-matched up, being wasteful in the final third is going to come back and hurt you.
We’ve seen this issue before: during the run-up to their first Carabao Cup Final in 2023, there were a few games in which they lacked a cutting edge.
Newcastle this season has had a poor start, and only in the last few weeks have we started to see the team regain energy.
If they can’t deliver a finished product, especially ahead of such a massive point in their season, it could be the start of another slump.
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Late goals haunt Newcastle again
What could have been a possible three turned out to be only one point as yet again, the Magpies failed to see a match out when they were in the lead.
The issues they’ve been facing in the Premier League this season have yet to disappear.
Grimaldo slotted home from inside the box after great ball movement from Leverkusen. Still, it was Newcastle’s failure to get on top of the situation and their unawareness that has seen them drop points again.
It nearly happened against Burnley, but they were fortunate that Josh Lancer’s header glanced wide. However, against Spurs, they conceded in stoppage time, as they did against Arsenal, Brentford and Liverpool.
Then, obviously, against Leverkusen, they lost another lead, and it’s haunting Eddie Howe’s Magpies: now that they have sorted out their scoring and winning away-from-home issues, they continue to display this terrible habit of conceding late.
They aren’t controlling games as they did against Manchester City and Everton.
It’s when they have gained a lead that they lose their heads, and they aren’t applying that same pressure that they do when they chase the lead at 0-0; there isn’t that urgency and aggression.
A point away to Leverkusen isn’t a bad result, but the work rate they were going at, the self-belief they showed, and the effort going forward, all of that becomes irrelevant, as they failed to win.
They clawed back from the goal they poorly defended and conceded in the first half, and their second-half performance was something worth praising, but it’s yet again their own self-destruction that’s costing valuable points.
They’ve conceded nine goals in the final 10 minutes of games in all competitions this season.
Among Premier League clubs, only Nottingham Forest have let in more.
The top eight now looks like a hard grasp, with their next Champions League fixtures: a home game against PSV Eindhoven and, on Matchday 8, a trip to the Parc De Princes to take on PSG.
An opportunity lost away to Leverkusen, and it’s Newcastle’s own doing.
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What next for Newcastle?
The attention turns to Sunday, December 14, when Eddie Howe and Newcastle United will make a short trip over the river to the Stadium of Light for the first Tyne-Wear Derby since 2024, and the first Premier League Tyne-Wear Derby in nine years.
Sunderland have yet to lose at home this season, and opposition teams have struggled to break down the Black Cats.
Bournemouth nearly came close, but Regis Le Bris’ side saw it out with a win.
The home side will also be fancying their chances against a few Magpies' weaknesses, especially on set pieces and long throws, which Sunderland have mastered at home.
Newcastle have only won away once this season, and they did brilliantly against Everton, which some people thought would be more difficult than the final score suggested.
Howe’s Newcastle cannot afford to be wasteful in the final third again, and need to sort out their defensive issues, especially in the dying minutes.
They are joint with Brentford for dropping the most points from winning positions.
Newcastle need a big turnaround, and it needs to come in one of their biggest tests and games of the season.
Sunderland will do everything to make it difficult, but it is up to Newcastle to keep that performance up that we’ve got accustomed to seeing recently for the full 90 minutes, as this is a game where they must earn points from.
