Premier League: Murphy's quickfire double guides Newcastle United to fifth
Newcastle United boosted their hopes of UEFA Champions League qualification and pushed Leicester City closer to relegation with a crushing 3-0 win
- LEICESTER — Newcastle United boosted their hopes of UEFA Champions League
qualification and pushed Leicester City closer to relegation with a crushing
3-0 win at King Power Stadium.
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- After several rivals for a top-four Premier League finish dropped
points over the weekend, Newcastle took their chance to go fifth in the table
with an emphatic showing.
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- Jacob Murphy's quickfire double gave Eddie Howe's men a
two-goal advantage early on at the King Power Stadium, before Harvey Barnes
turned home a third before the break.
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- While Newcastle with one game in hand, go one point clear of
Manchester City and are only behind Chelsea on goal difference, Leicester stay
15 points adrift of 17th-placed Wolverhampton Wanderers, with only 21 points to
play for.
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- "Really pleased. A massive win for us. We knew it
wasn't going to be easy. We started really well and that gave us the foundation
to go and win," Newcastle manager Howe said.
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- Leicester coach Ruud van Nistelrooy said, "It's clear
where it went wrong very early in the game again.
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- "If we look at the three goals carefully we could have
done better in all three. Newcastle are deadly on counter attack and finished
the game very quickly."
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- Newcastle have won 11 of their last 15 Premier League
matches (L4), starting with a 4-0 win over Leicester on 14th December; only
Liverpool (38) have more points in the competition since then than the Magpies’
33.
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- Leicester are the first side in the top four tiers of
English football to lose eight successive home league matches without scoring.
