Premier League: Newcastle United 3-3 Manchester City: Champions pull off thrilling comeback to salvage draw

Add as a preferred source on Google

Newcastle, Aug 21: In a thrilling encounter at St James' Park, Manchester City bounced back from two goals down, to salvage a 3-3 draw against Newcastle United in their Premier League game on Sunday.

City, opened the scoring, with Ilkay Gundogan finding the back of the net early, before hosts Newcastle pumped three past the reigning champions. But goals from Bernardo Silva and Erling Haaland in the second half, saw Pep Guardiola's men walk away with a thrilling 3-3 draw.

EPL Results | Points Table | Fixture

With the draw, the current champions remaining unbeaten after starting the Premier League season with two back-to-back wins. Guardiola's men secured an early lead in the fifth minute at St Jame's Park through Gundogan. But the rest of the first half belonged to the hosts.

VAR came into play as Miguel Almiron levelled it for the hosts on the 28th minute. Almiron's goal awarded via VAR and Callum Wilson's goal on the 39th minute saw the hosts double their lead heading into halftime.

Newcastle, who are unbeaten themselves in the current season - with one win and a draw, looked set to pull off a stunning win over City, who were trailing 2-1 at half-time. Less than ten minutes into the second half, Kieran Trippier's stunning free-kick put Newcastle further ahead with a 3-1 lead.

Staring at defeat, Haaland pulled one back and Silva equalised soon after to ensure the points were shared and City remained unbeaten.

Newcastle had kept back-to-back clean sheets but were caught cold early on, with Gundogan left in plenty of space to control Silva's clipped pass and fire home. Kevin De Bruyne was twice denied by Nick Pope, though Newcastle levelled up when Almiron met Saint-Maximin's cross with his thigh and bundled past Ederson.

After Almiron's celebrations were cut short by an offside flag, a VAR check determined Joao Cancelo had kept the Newcastle attacker onside and the goal was allowed to stand. The hosts led by the interval through Wilson's well-taken strike past Ederson following more good work from Saint-Maximin.

Pope produced a fine fingertip stop to help Haaland's shot onto the post early in the second half, shortly before Trippier's sublime 30-yard free-kick found the top-left corner. City gave themselves hope thanks to Haaland's volley after anticipating Rodri's knock-down inside the box.

After Haaland uncharacteristically missed a one-on-one chance, Man City were back on level terms when De Bruyne cut open Newcastle's defence and Silva calmly slotted past Pope.

That set up a tense final 25 minutes, in which Trippier was shown a red card for a cynical challenge on De Bruyne before the decision was downgraded to yellow, though there was to be no winning goal.

Meanwhile, earlier in the day, Chelsea was stunned by Leeds United. A howler from Edouardo Mendy saw Blues fall to their first defeat of the season as hosts Leeds clinched their second win of the season.

First half goals from Brenden Aaronson (33) and Rodrigo Moreno (37) and Jack Harrison's (69) goal in the second half sealed a stunning win for the hosts, who clinched their first triumph over their London rivals for almost two decades.

Source: Inputs from OPTA