Leeds beat Newcastle with Harrison, Rafinha goals

Updated: May 17, 2023, 05:10 am

Goals from wingers Raphinha and Jack Harrison gave Leeds United a 2-1 win at Newcastle United on Tuesday, piling more pressure on Magpies manager Steve Bruce after the club's winless Premier League run extended to nine games.

With seven defeats in those nine, the result left Newcastle 16th on 19 points from 20 games, while Leeds stayed 12th on 26 from 19 after ending their own three-game winless streak in all competitions.

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Leeds also failed to score during that run and Harrison pointed out that manager Marcelo Bielsa had asked his side to show grit against Newcastle, who seem to be heading into a relegation battle after another poor performance.

"The manager talks about having personality and character and we went into this game with a lot of fire," said Harrison.

"We knew it was going to be a challenge. We'd been preparing all week for this and we had to come out strong which we did. We'll keep our heads down and keep working hard game-by-game."

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Brazilian Raphinha fired Leeds ahead in the 17th minute when he side-footed a clinical finish into the bottom right corner from 15 metres after a fine build-up, as Patrick Bamford and Rodrigo carved open the Newcastle defence.

Lacking any bite up front and fortunate not to be trailing by more goals in the first half, the home side equalised out of the blue in the 57th as Miguel Almiron burst forward and steered a low shot past goalkeeper Illan Meslier.

Newcastle's joy was short-lived and they fell behind again four minutes later as Harrison was given time and space on the left to take Raphinha's pass into his stride and volley past keeper Karl Darlow into the far corner.

Newcastle pressed in the closing stages and missed several chances to salvage a point, with Meslier pulling off a pair of good saves to deny the Magpies who were also guilty of some poor finishing.