It is widely believed that Expected Goals is the best way to measure how well teams are playing in a given game.
To better see how teams are doing, the Expected Goals (xG) metric can give you a better idea of how teams are performing.
Expected goals (xG) is a statistic used to calculate how many goals should be scored in a match.
Each individual shot is assigned an xG value based on the difficulty of the attempt, with factors such as distance to goal, type of shot and number of defenders present influencing the value.
The higher the xG of a given shot, the greater the chance that a goal will be scored with that shot.
The xG value of each shot in a match is then used to calculate the expected goals in a given match.
So instead of just the usual basic stats of how many shots each team has, Expected Goals takes into account where the shot was taken from, how good the chance was and whether there were any defenders in the way, etc.
These expected goals statistics of Newcastle 3 PSV 0:
Newcastle United 2.52 PSV 0.34
As you can see, these expected goals stats give us some really good additional insight into how Wednesday night really went.
PSV had almost as much possession (46% possession) as Newcastle (54%).
However, Newcastle United defended so well as a team that Nick Pope had virtually nothing to do apart from dealing with crosses. PSV allowed only one shot on target and one corner kick.
On the other hand, Newcastle United looked dangerous in possession when breaking, but also when pressing high and forcing mistakes.
The 3-0 winning score was deserved and it indeed could and should have been more.
Newcastle 3 PSV 0 – Wednesday January 21, 2026 8:00 PM
Match statistics
Goals:
Newcastle United:
Warn 8, Gordon 30, Barnes 65
PSV:
Possess was Newcastle 54% PSV 46%
Total shots were Newcastle 11 PSV 6
Shots on target were Newcastle 4 PSV 1
Corners were Newcastle 3 PSV 1
Touches in the opposition box Newcastle29PSV11
Newcastle team vs PSV:
Pope, Tripper (Willock 87), Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Tonali, Joelinton (Ramsey 72), Bruno (Miley 48), Barnes, Gordon (Elanga 72), Wissa (Woltemade 72)
Unused subs:
Thompson, Ramsdale, Alex Murphy, Neave, Shahar
#Expected #goals #stats #real #story #Newcastle #PSV