Howe expects Champions League race to go to the final day | OneFootball

Newcastle manager Eddie Howe has said he expects the race for Champions League football to go to the final weekend.

The Magpies missed the chance to reclaim third place after being held to a 1-1 draw at Brighton on Sunday.

Yankuba Minteh scored against his former side for the second time this season to fire Brighton ahead. The Gambian skipped inside Tino Livramento and Sandro Tonali before striking an effort that deflected in off Dan Burn.

Newcastle improved after the introduction of Anthony Gordon, who was hacked down by Tariq Lamptey for a penalty. The decision, however, was overturned by VAR as the foul occurred outside the area. Newcastle saw a second penalty decision overturned by VAR before Craig Pawson pointed to the spot for a third time. This time, the decision stood, and Alexander Isak sent the goalkeeper the wrong way to equalise.

Newcastle stay fourth, though just seven points separate the teams from second to seventh in the table. Howe is expecting a tense conclusion to the campaign.

“It’s probably a good point for us, even though we came here to win,” he said to Sky Sports.

“Our final pass and cross probably wasn’t at its finest level. We were very disappointed with how we conceded. We did enough to warrant a point, if not more. I thought we were the team trying to win the game. Brighton are a difficult team to stop. We chased the game with intelligence and ultimately got our reward.

“It’s all to play for. We have three huge games, three very tough games in different ways. Two of them are at home and we hope that can make the difference.”

On whether he thinks the Champions League race will go to the wire, Howe added: “I felt that months back. We’ve got top quality teams fighting for a massive prize. We just hope we’re in there.”

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