BBC pundit Pat Nevin was thoroughly impressed with one Newcastle United player’s performance against AC Milan on Tuesday night.
Kick-starting their Champions League campaign with a tough away tie against AC Milan, Eddie Howe’s Magpies played out a hard-fought 0-0 draw against the Italians.
Although there will be disappointment his side failed to pinch all three points amid what is an incredibly tough group also featuring Borussia Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain, Howe would have been left pleased with his team’s work rate and faultless effort.
And Nevin, who spoke on the BBC Sound’s Football Daily show, singled out right-back and club captain Kieran Trippier for some extra high praise of his own.
“Wow, you’ve stopped him [Theo Hernandez] for the entirety of the game and you’ve stopped [Rafael] Leao for almost the entirety of the game,” the pundit said.
“And by the way on top of that you’ve done a lot of overlapping yourself. For Kieran Trippier I thought it was a fabulous captain’s display from him today. And I think Newcastle are a different team when he’s in that team.”
Trippier’s performance earned him a decent 7.7 match rating on Sofa Score, and had it not been for a rock-solid goalkeeping display from Nick Pope, the Englishman would have easily claimed the game’s ‘player of the match’ award.