Newcastle United fans on social media are loving one particular moment from Malick Thiaw as they bask in the glory of beating Manchester City.
Thiaw was brilliant for Newcastle United against Manchester City and played a key role in helping keep Erling Haaland quiet.
Such is the lethal nature of the Norway international, Haaland did have two reasonably good chances in the game.
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Still, he was stopped from scoring and duly entering the Premier League’s 100 club just yet.
That was thanks in large part to Thiaw’s excellence, although fellow central defender Fabian Schar is also worthy of a mention.
However, there was one particular moment from Thiaw that went down a storm amongst Newcastle fans online.
Newcastle United fans loved Malick Thiaw’s challenge on Erling Haaland
As the game was approaching the 48-minute mark, City raced clear.
Haaland was freed by Jeremy Doku and had a rare chance to run directly at Nick Pope’s goal.
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Thiaw, however, stood in his way. As Haaland looked to dribble past him, the German stood tall and produced a perfectly timed challenge to deny him.
Even more impressively, he emerged with the ball, drove forward and made a forward pass to a teammate.
Newcastle fans already love Thiaw but that further enhanced his popularity.
“Thiaw immense again – brilliant positionally and matched Haaland physically,” said one fan.
Another supporter added: “Thiaw is quietly becoming one of the signings of the season. Takes some doing keeping Haaland quiet.”
Malick Thiaw’s brilliant stats for Newcastle United against Manchester City make for good reading
Thiaw has been a transfer bargain for Newcastle and didn’t really need to prove that on Saturday.
The German, however, very much did.
As well as his brilliant tackle on Haaland, Thiaw made seven clearances, six ball recoveries, one interception and was not dribbled past at all.
| Newcastle United vs Manchester City statistics | Malick Thiaw |
| Tackles | 1 |
| Last-man tackles | 1 |
| Clearances | 7 |
| Headed clearances | 2 |
| Interceptions | 1 |
| Recoveries | 6 |
| Ground duels won | 1/1 |
Doing all that against a player as good as Haaland underlined just what a remarkable start to life he has made at Newcastle.
It took an age for Newcastle to finally sign a central defender after tracking Marc Guehi for so long but Thiaw has made that transfer saga a thing of the past.
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