Football
ESPN staff 6y

Newcastle boost survival hopes by beating Man United, Liverpool stroll

Matt Ritchie scored a second-half winner as Newcastle lifted themselves out of the relegation places with a 1-0 victory over Manchester United at St James' Park.

The visitors were under pressure in the opening stages, with David De Gea making a fine stop from a powerful Jonjo Shelvey drive and Ayoze Perez firing wide.

United were denied by home keeper Martin Dubravka, who made a great 33rd-minute stop to deny Anthony Martial, but moments later Newcastle wanted a penalty when Chris Smalling challenged Dwight Gayle just inside the area.

They were close again after a lovely pass from Romelu Lukaku set up Alexis Sanchez who rounded the goalkeeper but saw his strike brilliantly blocked by Florian Lejeune.

And the importance of that intervention became clear when, after 65 minutes, Newcastle took the lead as Ritchie was left unmarked to sweep home a left-footed shot after the ball had been headed across by Lejeune and touched on by Gayle.

Liverpool moved back above Tottenham and into third place in the Premier League table as two first-half goals gave them a routine 2-0 victory at struggling Southampton.

Jurgen Klopp's side led after only six minutes as Southampton's defence cracked and Roberto Firmino swept home after Mohamed Salah had played the ball across following a mistake by Wesley Hoedt, who failed to cut out a long pass.

Southampton could have equalised when a deep cross fell to Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, who got the better of Andrew Robertson but saw his shot blocked by keeper Loris Karius, who was swiftly off his line.

Karius then tipped over a James Ward-Prowse header and the home side were made to pay for those missed opportunities as Salah played a lovely one-two with Firmino and stroked home his 22nd league goal of an outstanding season.

Steve Mounie's double helped Huddersfield to a 4-1 home win against Bournemouth, lifting them out of the Premier League relegation zone.

Alex Pritchard's early opener for the Terriers was quickly cancelled out by Junior Stanislas, but Mounie restored his side's lead before half-time and headed his eighth goal of the season in the second period.

Rajiv van La Parra rounded off a convincing win for Town by converting a stoppage-time penalty.

It was a crucial victory for Huddersfield, who notched their first points of 2018 after last week's defeat at Manchester United had extended their winless league run to eight matches and plunged them into the bottom three.

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