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Rafa Benitez warns after Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 “If you ask about referees I won’t say anything”

5 years ago
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Rafa Benitez could reflect on a very professional performance.

His team had only 26% possession against Huddersfield yet rarely, if ever, looked in real danger of conceding.

A disciplined defence/team held firm and when the chance came…Newcastle carved out an excellent move on 55 minutes that won the game.

Two real discussion points for many people and no doubt will be discussed at length in the media.

Towards the end of the first half the ball was bouncing out of play in a non-threatening area, only for Jamaal Lascelles to ridiculously take the opportunity to throw himself into a thigh high challenge on the home player seeing the ball out.

If he had connected properly then it could have only been a red but he only ended up wrapping his legs around the opponent, so a yellow not a red and the right decision from Newcastle’s  perspective.

The other real contentious issue came when Ayoze Perez was put through and made it 2-0, only for the linesman to flag very very late for offside. In the flesh and on replays it doesn’t look great for the match officials, but judge for yourself when you see it…

Rafa Benitez went mental last weekend when Wolves got all the decisions but having won this time, despite the incompetence of match officials, he felt happy to simply tell the media after the game: ‘If you ask about referees I won’t say anything’.

The scoreline says it all.

Rafa Benitez:

“If you ask about referees I won’t say anything.

“Most important win of season?

“Hopefully not.

“Hopefully we will win more.

“Creating chances…the main thing for the strikers, is (for the other players) to create chances for them.

“If you create them then they will score.

“I’m sure Huddersfield will be disappointed because they were pushing and had possession (74%) but we had the same against Brighton.

“It (the win) is important for us.

“Huddersfield are a good team and they will work hard from the beginning until the end of the season.

“To get three points and keep them further away is a little step.

“Now we have to take more.

“We knew they would be on the front foot from the beginning, they would be pushing and be high, so there would be space in behind.

“We counter-attacked well once and nearly did it again but it was offside (though replays showed it wasn’t…).”

Stats from BBC Sport:

Huddersfield 0 Newcastle 1 

Goals:

Newcastle: Rondon 55

Possession was Huddersfield 76% Newcastle 24%

Total shots were  Huddersfield 15 Newcastle 8

Shots on target were Huddersfield 5 Newcastle 5

Corners were  Huddersfield 10 Newcastle 1

Referee: Anthony Taylor

Newcastle United:

Dubravka, Manquillo, Schar, Lascelles, Clark, Kenedy (Dummett 89), Ki (Hayden 72), Diame, Atsu, Rondon (Ritchie 81), Perez

Unused Subs:

Woodman, Joselu, Muto, Murphy

Crowd: 24,036 (Newcastle 2,400)

(To read Alan Shearer’s reaction to the win go HERE)

(Instant NUFC fan/writer reaction to the win HERE)

(David Wagner can’t believe that Huddersfield lost to Newcastle – Read HERE)

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