Tonali takes just ten seconds to get back into the groove

The green, white and red of Italy’s Tricolore cut dramatically through a celebrating sea of black and white. They sang his name, the 3,000 from Tyneside, and they waved his country’s colours. A corner of Nottingham’s City Ground that had welcomed Sandro Tonali back to football like a returning son rejoiced in a tense penalty shoot-out victory.
“Sandro ole ole ole,” tumbled forth from a bouncing Bridgford Stand once more. It was the soundtrack for the night. Perhaps it was the motivation for such an impressive return. It went on for more than two minutes after Sean Longstaff had struck the winning penalty at the other side of the City Ground.
Tonali stood with his team-mates and stared. Ten months of anguish, after his ban for illegal betting on football matches, started to recede right then. The months of darkness he had confessed to on Tuesday evening were a contrast to the bright lights of a football away end at night in total joy.
“He has got the love of the people who really matter and that is his family and the Newcastle family,” Eddie Howe, the Newcastle head coach, said. “To see that will elevate him and make him feel so good.
“You could see the amount of Italian flags in the crowd. There was a lot of emotion coming from Sandro’s side and the supporters gave it back to him and that is so important to the player. To see him back doing the thing he loves is the most important thing.”
He had given his all for 62 minutes. By the end he was looking towards the visiting dugout to check their stopwatches had not stopped, but before then were constant reminders of why Newcastle paid AC Milan £55million for him last summer after Howe had revealed he fell in love with the Italian midfielder.
His impact was immediate. After a ten-month wait, it took only ten seconds to help set up a goal. From a traumatic ten to the perfect ten.
There was a pass into a congested central midfield area from Joelinton, Tonali let it run across his path before playing a forward ball to Miguel Almiron and when he sent Alexander Isak clean through, Newcastle were heading into the lead. There was a save from Carlos Miguel and Joe Willock, arriving at pace, steadied himself enough to put a right-footed shot into the Nottingham Forest goal. Eighteen seconds had been played.
Tonali celebrated with his team-mates. It could have been an even more dramatic return. The game had not reached the three-minute mark when Isak sent the Italian scampering through, there was a touch and then a right-footed shot that was saved by the body of Miguel. “Sandre ole ole ole,” rang out.
There was much for Tonali and Howe to be pleased about. He was always available for a short pass, quick on the half turn and fed Miguel Almirón a succession of fine passes down the Newcastle right. There were instructions to team-mates after a quick Forest break, smart touches, quick twists and link-ups on the Newcastle right with Kieran Trippier.
He spent his 60 minutes on the right of Newcastle’s midfield three. He was always available for the ball, he won headers, and when his obvious lack of fitness began to show, with an hour gone, he looked at the bench, and up went the No8. There was a high five from Howe and then Tonali went along the entirety of Newcastle’s substitutes and backroom staff and slapped hands with every one of them before talking his shirt off, replacing it with the training top he will have been sick of wearing for ten months and sat in the dugout at a football match, an area from which he had previously been banned.
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Forest had equalised by then, through Jota Silva, five minutes into the second half. For Tonali, the joy was from simply playing again.
It took penalties to get Tonali and Newcastle through, and when they came, and after Joelinton and Ibrahim Sangaré had exchanged misses, they were indebted to a woeful effort from Taiwo Awoniyi, who fired Forest’s fifth way over the crossbar, allowing Sean Longstaff to slot home the winning spot kick as the away side won the shoot-out 4-3.
AFC Wimbledon 2 Ipswich Town 2 (Wimbledon win 4-2 on penalties)Cardiff City 3 Southampton 5Colchester United 0 Brentford 1Nottingham Forest 1 Newcastle United 1 (Newcastle win 4-3 on penalties)Swansea City 0 Wycombe Wanderers 1West Ham United 1 Bournemouth 0Wolverhampton Wanderers 2 Burnley 0
Liverpool v West Ham UnitedManchester City v WatfordArsenal v Bolton WanderersManchester United v BarnsleyWycombe Wanderers v Aston VillaCoventry City v Tottenham HotspurWalsall v Leicester CityBrentford v Leyton OrientBlackpool v Sheffield WednesdayPreston North End v FulhamEverton v SouthamptonQueens Park Rangers v Crystal PalaceStoke City v Fleetwood TownBrighton & Hove Albion v Wolverhampton WanderersAFC Wimbledon v Newcastle UnitedChelsea v BarrowTies to be played in weeks commencing September 16 and September 23 depending on fixtures in European competitions