Newcastle United suffered temporary setback in their Champions League pursuit after dropping points at home against hard-fighting Leeds United.
Starting Lineup
Newcastle United Starring IX: Nick Pope; Kieran Trippier, Sven Botman, Fabian Schar, Dan Burn; Joe Willock, Bruno Guimaraes, Sean Longstaff; Miguel Almiron, Chris Wood, Joelinton.
Leeds United Starting IX: Illan Meslier; Luke Ayling, Robin Koch, Liam Cooper, Pascal Struijk; Adam Forshaw, Tyler Adams; Wilfried Gnonto, Brenden Aaronson, Jack Harrison; Rodrigo Moreno.
Newcastle United are the surprise team of the Premier League gatecrashing the top four challenge in the Premier League.
Hosting Leeds at St James Park, the Magpies needed a win to stay in contention, with Manchester United and Tottenham strongly joining the race.
Against Leeds, Eddie Howe knew it would be a tough game that would likely be separated by slim margins if there will be a winner.
While they have won their last Premier League game against Leeds, the visitors have been unbeaten on their last three visits to St James Park.
The rivalry between the two teams played out in a tightly contested first half which ended barren.
Newcastle United proved to be a better side, dominating and winning set pieces, but stumbled on goal chances.
Leeds’ glaring defensive blunders were again brought to the fore as Newcastle easily broke through into the box but failed to convert chances.
Newcastle would have taken the lead before heading into the first-half break but had to settle for a barren first 45 minutes after wasting numerous chances.
Meanwhile, Leeds were able to contest for possession effectively and threaten with counterattacks but failed to create any clear chance in the game.
After the scrappy first-half game, the second half took a different dimension. Newcastle were becoming more clinical after creating chances. But the game drone without a goal.
Both sides made some changes trying to chisel the game, but there was no upset. The scoreline was still 0-0 with more minutes of the first half spent.
While Newcastle continued to dominate play, they had a sharper Leeds attack to worry about.
Leeds was becoming more dangerous when charging forward and were giving Nick Pope and the Newcastle defence headache.
However, the Magpies held on as the game progressed, trying to make their dominant display count, while holding off Leeds front line attackers.
The match entered the last 10 minutes with both sides unable to make anything happen going forward.
Eddie Howe made more substitutions trying to break the goal deadlock, all to no avail; Leeds fell back to the defence as they tried to wrestle at least a point from the game.
The visitors finally ended up salvaging a point from the game, forcing the hosts to a 0-0 draw after the final whistle.
