#2 Stat attack: Villa vs Newcastle – a battle of the Champions League winners
For the first time ever in the second tier of the English domestic leagues, 2 Champions League winning managers faced each other. Both Roberto Di Matteo and Rafa Benitez managed to conquer Europe (Di Matteo with Chelsea in 2012 and Benitez withLiverpool in 2005). This weekend they were looking to collect 3 points from each other in the Sky Bet Championship.
Perhaps it was destined therefore that neither manager could get the upper hand over the other and the ended as a 1-1 draw. Both teams were Premier League sides last season and as such provided an entertaining enough match, both equally sharing the possession stats at 50%.
Newcastle will be more disappointed with the draw as they had twice as many shots as the home side, (18 to Villa’s 9) but couldn’t actually score themselves. The breakthrough for Newcastle coming on 18 minutes from a Tommy Elphick own goal after good work and a cross from the wing by DeAndre Yedlin.
During match-day 10, Newcastle and Villa had mixed fortunes. Villa managed a 1-1 draw with Barnsley after yet another late goal denied the Midlands side the 3 points. Newcastle were home to Norwich and produced a quite superb come back from 3-1 down to win 4-3 with 2 goals in added time to send the Canaries home totally deflated.
