Mateta brace damages Newcastle's Euro hopes
Premier League: Crystal Palace 2 Newcastle 0
Jean-Philippe Mateta scored for a fifth consecutive home match to fire Crystal Palace to an impressive 2-0 win over Newcastle.
It was a deserved victory for Oliver Glasner's team and continued their resurgence under the Austrian, with this a third Premier League success in a row after notable wins over West Ham and Liverpool.
Mateta broke the deadlock at Selhurst Park with a smart 55th-minute finish before he added a second late on to end Newcastle's four-match unbeaten run and damage their prospects of securing European football for next season.
Palace had produced a five-star display to beat West Ham on Sunday, but Glasner decided to rest Michael Olise after his recent return from injury.
It failed to disrupt the hosts' momentum as the imperious Eberechi Eze flashed an early effort wide before his cross was headed over by Mateta.
Adam Wharton and Jordan Ayew were next to try their luck for Palace but failed to significantly test Martin Dubravka before Bruno Guimaraes gave Newcastle an injury scare.
Guimaraes slipped on the wet surface and stayed down, although the Brazil midfielder was eventually able to continue and not add to the Magpies' lengthy absentee list.
Newcastle had looked sluggish in the opening exchanges, despite this being their first match in 10 days, but sprung into life after 29 minutes.
An excellent pass by Guimaraes sent Alexander Isak through on goal but Palace goalkeeper Dean Henderson held his nerve to slide in to thwart the forward.
Mateta smashed an effort against the crossbar soon after, but the offside flag was raised before Eze had a penalty appeal waved away by referee Thomas Bramall as it remained goalless at the break.
Half-time did not
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