On Wednesday, Newcastle United needed to get a result against AC Milan in order to avoid dropping out of Europe entirely.
They were at home, at St James’ Park, and there was hope something could happen despite the club’s poor run of form of late.
Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case, and Newcastle ended up losing 2-1, with Dan Burn being voted ‘The Worst’ by Gazzetta dello Sport for the Magpies.
That might seem harsh, seeing as the defender only came on run the 63rd minute, but he was the one who lost Samuel Chukwueze during Milan’s goalscoring and match-winning counter-attack, which eventually led to his club missing out on the Europa League parachute.
Burn has only just returned from a lengthy spell on the sidelines due to injury, and Gazzetta said ‘it showed’, as he ‘didn’t have the pace’ to keep up with the Serie A side after coming on.
While he isn’t the sole person to blame for the defeat, he is the Newcastle player singled out by the newspaper, being given the same rating as Eddie Howe, who ‘got the changes wrong’ throughout the game.
A sorry evening for the Magpies, who had lofty dreams of making it out of their group after the big victory against Paris Saint-Germain, only for it all to crumble after that.
