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Manchester United warmed up for their crunch Champions League clash with Bayern Munich on Wednesday by thrashing Newcastle 4-0 at St James’ Park.
While Bayern lost their 53-game unbeaten league streak in a 1-0 defeat against minnows Augsburg, United were in clinical fashion even without the injured Wayne Rooney, with Juan Mata the star of the show.
The Spaniard curled home a delightful free kick to give United a first-half lead, before he doubled the advantage with a composed finish from inside the box.
Javier Hernandez took advantage of a rare start to net the third, before Adnan Januzaj added the gloss in stoppage time, after running on to a Mata back-heel to slot past Rob Elliott.
Match Stats
Newcastle will rue some wasteful finishing and fine goalkeeping as they dominated the shot count, but failed to get themselves on the scoresheet, while United managed to score with all four shots they had on target.
Just four of the Magpies’ 14 shots hit the target, where they found Anders Lindegaard in fine form, while eight shots drifted harmlessly past the Dane’s goal.
Newcastle will also be disappointed that they gave up a lot of momentum with some silly fouls, conceding 14 to the visitors’ six, with one of them being the free-kick that sent United on their way.
Man Of The Match
No surprises to find out that Juan Mata was the star performer in this contest, as his two goals sent United on their way to victory.
The £37.1m January signing from Chelsea too the mantle of being the key player easily, with his two goals coming from his two attempts, while he claimed an assist for Januzaj’s strike as well.
In total, Mata completed 53 passes with an accuracy of 87% and completed two take-ons in addition to that and made two interceptions to aid the defensive side of proceedings.
Performance Score
The Squawka Performance Score chart shows that the match was a real even tussle up until the opening goal, with neither side really impressing in the first half an hour of the match.
United started to press home their advantage after the break however and while they were not as dominant as the scoreline suggests, as 466 points difference between the two sides was evident at the final whistle, with United’s ability to convert their chances proving the big difference.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRwMaZRehNg
Key Observations
It is perhaps undervalued the idea of having a manager on the touchline and their ability to influence the game once it is in motion.
But after Tim Sherwood voluntarily stayed routed in the stands as Tottenham lost 4-0 last week, Alan Pardew’s touchline ban is evidently hurting Newcastle as they put in the latest of a number of inept performances since he headbutted David Meyler in the victory over Hull.
Since then, Newcastle have managed just 1-0 win against Crystal Palace – the side with the poorest away record in the division – and their record reads: Played five, won one, Lost four, scoring just one goal and conceding 12.
The last three games have come at a combined scoreline of 11-0 as United followed Everton and Southampton with a comfortable victory and the rot is truly well established at St James’ Park.
Pardew’s touchline ban still has two games to run and if he follows through with his plan to remain away from the dugouts following it’s conclusion, we could see a rather pitiful end to the season for Newcastle.
Plenty of reasons to be positive for United ahead of the clash with Bayern, but the worry is that the main positive in Mata will not be available for the clash, as he is cup-tied.
However, Shinji Kagawa once again demonstrated his return to form and must really take the place of the Spaniard against Bayern after he played a key part in this dismantling of Newcastle.
Kagawa created three of the eight opportunities United had in this game as he popped up all over the pitch to provide a constant outlet for his fellow midfielders.
In total, the Japanese playmaker completed 67 passes with an accuracy of 89% and given the chance to link up further forward with either Wayne Rooney (fitness pending) or Hernandez again, United’s hopes of causing an upset might not be so far-fetched.
