27-year-old Newcastle player sent off last night in nightmare game for his country

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Newcastle United midfielder Joelinton was sent off in Brazil’s 1-0 defeat to Argentina in the early hours of Wednesday morning.

It was a nightmare performance for both Brazil and Joelinton who have given themselves a lot of work to do in the remaining World Cup qualifying games.

Brazil fell to three consecutive defeats following their 2-1 loss to Colombia on Friday and a 2-0 loss to Uruguay on October 18 in the previous international window.

Joelinton controversially sent off

The Newcastle midfielder had only been on the pitch for about 10 minutes before being given a red card for what was deemed to be foul play on Rodrigo De Paul.

Replays show that De Paul was clinging on to Joelinton and refusing to let go before the £40m man pushed him off using his forearm.

With Brazil chasing the game after Nicolas Otamendi’s opening goal in the 63rd minute, there proved to be just too much work to do for Fernando Diniz’s 10 men who are now sixth in the table, just two points above Paraguay.

Joelinton’s Newcastle teammate Bruno Guimaraes started the game at the Maracana but also failed to have a real positive impact for Brazil, creating just two chances before being brought off in the 78th minute.

Joelinton now returns to Newcastle

Eddie Howe won’t have been too pleased to lose two of his best midfield options to international duty halfway around the world especially given the current injury crisis at the club. The timing of the game was also not ideal with it kicking off at 00:30am in the U.K., but it’s something Howe again has to find a way to cope with.

Despite being called up, Joelinton did not have a part to play in Brazil’s first game against Colombia and, as previously mentioned, was only on the pitch for around 10 minutes before he received his red card.

So, the 26-year-old should be relatively fit and ready to head into a very hectic period in which Newcastle face Chelsea, PSG and Manchester United in the space of eight days.

Howe will need as many bodies as he can get and will hope to have at least one or two who are returning from injury available on the bench to give the likes of Bruno and Joelinton a bit of a rest.