Newcastle United beat Manchester City to open up a gap on their relegation rivals Cardiff City on Tuesday night.
Sol Bamba has waxed-lyrical about Newcastle manager Rafa Benitez labelling him a ‘tactical genius’ following his side’s 2-1 win over Manchester City on Tuesday night at St James’ Park.
The Cardiff City defender, who was playing in his side’s defeat to Arsenal on the same night, revealed that his teammates did look for the results of their relegation rivals after the match.
A fortnight ago, Newcastle picked up a valuable three points against the Bluebirds, with both teams set to go to the wire in the fight for survival this season.
Nonetheless, Cardiff powerhouse Bamba offered his thoughts on Newcastle’s surprise win, which moves them into 14th place in the Premier League table.
“No-one saw it coming,” Bamba told Sky Sports News on 30/01/2019. “But from his [Benitez] point of view, he knew he could do that, he is a tactical genius and I think they had a game plan which they stuck to very well.
“It is [quite daunting St James’ Park]. When this place is doing well, it is the best place to play football. It is like a mini-league between us. Down there at the bottom, we all look at each other’s results.”
At this moment in time, Newcastle are five points ahead of Cardiff in the table, with the Welsh outfit sitting in the relegation zone following back-to-back defeats.
The January transfer window is set to slam shut on Thursday evening, so it remains to be seen if both these clubs dip into the market for that extra push.
BBC Sport report that the Magpies are close to breaking their transfer record by signing Atlanta United midfielder Miguel Almiron from the MLS.
If he does put pen-to-paper then the Paraguay international will add much-needed bite and goalscoring prowess to Benitez’s team for the second half of the Premier League campaign.
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