Late-Goal Curse Strikes Again as Newcastle Throw Away Lead in Dramatic 2-2 Draw at Leverkusen
Newcastle United’s old bad habit came back to bite them again as an 88th-minute strike from Alex Grimaldo denied Eddie Howe’s side a priceless Champions League win in Germany. The Magpies, who had fought brilliantly to turn the game on its head, was left furious as Bayer Leverkusen snatched a late 2-2 draw at a rocking BayArena.
Aaron Ramsdale flung his arms out, Malick Thiaw hammered the turf, and Dan Burn plus Jacob Murphy could hardly believe what they’d seen. Newcastle had done the hard work… then let it slip. Again. Howe didn’t hide his frustration afterwards. “You have to stand up and be counted and we didn’t do it well enough,” he said. “That’s a team thing – everyone realising how important it is to defend our goal.”
The stats make grim reading. Newcastle have now conceded nine goals in the final 10 minutes across all competitions this season – only Nottingham Forest has leaked more among Premier League clubs. Anthony Gordon, who scored and later spoke to TNT Sports, didn’t sugarcoat it either: “It all comes back to mentality,” he said. “Top teams hold out. We’ve got to be stronger.”
It didn’t help that they’d given themselves a mountain to climb early on. Howe named arguably his strongest XI, with Hall, Joelinton, Tonali and Barnes all starting, but Newcastle switched off from a set piece – again. Aleix Garcia’s corner was allowed to drop, Robert Andrich shrugged off Tonali like he wasn’t there, and the ball deflected in off Bruno Guimarães. Another soft one. Another set-play mess.
Recent weeks show a worrying pattern. Spurs nicked a late leveller from a corner. Burnley pulled one back from a handball at a dead-ball. Even against 10 men last weekend, Newcastle almost blew it when Josh Laurent headed inches wide in stoppage time. Howe admitted the frustration: “That’s the one that really gets me. We worked a lot on set-plays… and we still didn’t defend it well enough.”
To their credit, Newcastle rallied after the break. A high press from Nick Woltemade forced keeper Mark Flekken into a clumsy foul, Gordon smashed home the penalty, then turned provider for Lewis Miley, who nodded them in front to spark wild celebrations in the away end. But once more, game management deserted them. Despite hitting the post through Murphy and looking lively on the break, Newcastle gradually dropped too deep, invited pressure, and paid the price when Grimaldo’s clever dummy opened them up for the late equaliser.
Howe insisted it wasn’t intentional: “It’s never a case of sitting back. Sometimes you just have to do whatever it takes to win,” he said. But the numbers tell a different story. Newcastle have now dropped 11 points from winning positions, the worst record in the Premier League. They’ve failed to win four of their last five away games, despite scoring first in all of them.
Still, there’s hope. The draw keeps Newcastle in the running for at least a play-off place, just a couple of points off automatic qualification for the last 16. But with PSV visiting St James’ Park on 21 January and a trip to holders PSG to follow, they can’t keep repeating the same mistakes. “It leaves us in a good position,” Howe added. “It’s in our hands… but two really tough games to come.”
For now, Newcastle head home with that familiar sinking feeling. A good performance, a great fightback, but another late punch in the gut. The story of their season, written all over again.