Newcastle United vs Manchester City match report: Captain’s performance from Moussa Sissoko keeps Magpies in running to avoid relegation

Newcastle United 1 Manchester City 1: Frenchman's colossal contribution helps hosts to share of points with Champions League semi-finalists

Newcastle captain Moussa Sissoko (right) was outstanding against Manchester City (Getty)

By the end Newcastle were tearing at the Champions League semi-finalists again and again, while most of the stadium was rising to sing their new Rafa Benitez anthem. It was then that you saw what could be just over the horizon for this great club and why the hope will carrying on killing them for a little while more.

It is no ordinary relegation fight because at stake is also the retention of the manager this place has taken to heart. Against such a backdrop, it felt like two points dropped when Newcastle had pummelled the life out of Manchester City and still only taken one, though the manner which they secured it takes them into the back straight replenished.

The Newcastle Benitez took over was meek and lost. This one offered the first genuinely tangible evidence of rejuvenation – driven forward as it was by Moussa Sissoko, the Spaniard’s appointed captain, whose contribution was colossal. Check Tiote looked restored to something like his best, too, and in Andros Townsend’s pace and verve we saw another threat. “We’re still believing,” Townsend said in the aftermath. The point keeps them second bottom but it’s a tight bunch now – two points dividing Newcastle, Sunderland and Norwich. “Could be better but could be worse because you are playing against a team that could be in final of the Champions League,” Benitez reflected. “Before I wanted the three points, but after...”

Sergio Aguero (centre) celebrates after opening the scoring (Getty Images)

When asked what might ultimately be the difference between survival and drop, Benitez replied that to avoiding getting into the mathematics might help. “Don’t look at the table,” as he put it. Fortune would help more. Sergio Aguero was a yard offside when the free kick he headed in for his 100th Premier League goal was struck, but official Dave Bryan did not raise his flag. “You can’t change anything but I think they should get it right,” Benitez said.

The bigger picture was more important. Though the potential of facing a title-seeking Tottenham on the last day of the season means Newcastle will need to get their points in early, this performance suggests that Benitez is turning the ship around.

There have been no sacred cows for him here. He has seen what this club have thrown their money away on and his assessment was written across the Newcastle bench - five members of which had cost £48m. For the first time in the Premier League this season, last summer’s £14.5m marquee signing, Georginio Wijnaldum, did not start.

Though the home record has been this team’s last article of faith – the three wins and two draws in six something they have clung to like a life raft – the way City attacked in swarms punctured the hope located in Saturday’s defeat of Swansea on this ground. The prospect of Jamaa Lascelles versus Aguero was one best viewed behind the hands of Newcastle’s fans, especially when the defender laconically passed the ball out of defence to the striker in the first half. The home side’s defence is always capable of calamity and there is no way around that for a manager: even one demanding a tight, straight line as relentlessly as Benitez was, with those familiar cupped finger instructions of his.

The stadium was struck silent when Aguero stepped back to navigate a header Aleksandar Kolaov’s cross from the right beyond Karl Darlow on 14 minutes. But there was something stirring in the side. Early indications suggest Benitez’s decision to install Sissoko as captain might prove transformative in a player who had occasionally looked interested under the previous regime..

It helped that City’s intensity levels dropped inexplicably. This match carried serious competitive intensity with the prospect of securing Champions League qualification before Real Madrid materialise next week. It did not make a difference. Fabian Delph struggled to hold midfield and Kolarov provided the weak links that Sissoko could exploit.

Vurnon Anita (left) equalised for Newcastle to boost their hopes of avoiding relegation (Getty Images)

It was that defender’s loose pass which the Frenchman seized in his own half just before the hour and raced 50 yards with, snatching at a shot prematurely which Joe Hart dropped on when facing him down. Sissoko was equally short of options when drove down City’s right with the ball two minutes later, but he was unchallenged to lift a 20-yard ball, flank to flank, which Vurnon Anita took inside Kolarov with his left foot and threaded in off Hart’s right hand post, to equalise.

Darlow’s save ten minutes after the restart - low with strong wrists as Jesus Navas seized on a moment’s lack of concentration in the Newcastle defence – was the night’s stand-out piece of goalkeeping. But Newcastle were the side with a strategy and intent. At times, Townsend oozed self-expression and risk-taking, troubling Kolarov deeply. Ayoze Perez justified the decision to start him in place of Wijnaldum. It didn’t help City’s attempts to hold firm that Vincent Kompany’s return to the side was decidedly mixed. He was booked for chopping down yet another Sissoko drive down the right. Wijnaldum came on, found a path through City’s area but shot at Hart. “I’m a little bit upset because of the chance,” Benitez reflected.

A point it had to be. Three are required at his spiritual home, Anfield, this weekend. The gallant fighter’s role is not enough. Newcastle will need to cause a genuine shock somewhere with time running through their hands.

Star man Sissoko (Newcastle)

Match rating 8/10