Newcastle’s Star Shines: Bruno Guimaraes Sings His Way to 1-0 Victory Over West Ham

Following Newcastle’s 1-0 victory over West Ham at the London Stadium, match winner Bruno Guimaraes was singing beautifully in front of the traveling Newcastle supporters.

“Of course, when you don’t win games, confidence goes down a little bit, but when we play like that, we show the character of the team. To be very honest, at our very best, we can beat any team in the world.

“We just have to be consistent. We played well, we kept a clean sheet – the most important thing is the three points.”

Newcastle boss Eddie Howe:

“Massive win, not our best game, but one of our best games. Always going to be tight and difficult team to play against. We were everything defensively that we haven’t been in recent weeks.

“Challenging week but really pleased. That was a hard-fought win for us. Based on good defensive work from the team.

“I thought Harvey [Barnes] had his moments and his assist for the goal was a top-quality cross. He’s capable of those decisive moments. So really pleased for him and Bruno to get the goal.”

West Ham boss Graham Potter:

“I feel for the players. They put so much into the game. Really committed performance. We started the game well. We had to defend well at times. We had our moments and they had theirs.

“They scored and the goal is frustrating from our perspective. We think it is clear. Two hands on the back of the defender, it is a push. He [Isak] didn’t celebrate and thought it was a push.

“We didn’t do enough to win the game. We can improve our attacking play. Overall, the boys gave it their all.”

Although Newcastle’s performance was far from historic, they still managed to secure three vital points in the competition for Champions League football.

Level on points with the defending champions, Man City, and up to sixth place. Howe’s team rode their luck occasionally, as West Ham’s finishing, not the goalie’s play, kept Nick Pope’s clean sheet intact, but they won’t care.

The Magpies manager called the build-up to this match “challenging” following the losses of Hall, Gordon, and Botman, but this victory is the ideal pick-me-up before Sunday’s Carabao Cup final, which Guimaraes likened to the “World Cup final” in an interview with Sky Sports following the victory.

It’s obvious that West Ham needs to be visible up front. For a large portion of this match, they were the superior team, but they lacked a midfield player to convert those opportunities.

With 16 points separating them from Ipswich in 18th place, they seem safe from the drop. Potter has done a good job guiding them to safety and stabilizing the ship. The actual pressure to continue will increase in the upcoming season.