Karanka: Negredo will keep Boro up
AITOR KARANKA backed Alvaro Negredo to score the goals that keep Middlesbrough in the Premier League.
The Spain forward, on a season-long loan from Valencia, looked to have put Boro on course for victory with a debut goal.
But Xherdan Shaqiri denied promoted Middlesbrough the perfect start to their Premier League season as his superb freekick handed Stoke a point they scarcely deserved.
Switzerland international Shaqiri beat Boro keeper Victor Valdes with a curling 67thminute effort to cancel out Negredo’s opener as the Teessiders dominated for long periods in front of a crowd of 32,110.
Indeed, had the impressive Gaston Ramirez not been thwarted by both a post and the bar before the break, they might have had the points wrapped up long before the Potters levelled to snatch a draw.
Karanka said: “It was a really important goal for Alvaro.
“I said when we signed him that he needed to recover his confidence. The last year wasn’t good for him.
“When he is confident, as he was at Manchester City, he is a top player.
“He came here to show how good he is and to help us stay in this League.”
Stoke’s 40-year-old keeper Shay Given, starting in place of the injured Jack Butland, had to tip an early speculative effort from Albert Adomah on to the roof of his net and Ramirez headed over from a Stewart Downing corner inside the opening eight minutes. But Stoke did not heed the warnings and fell behind with 11 minutes gone when Adomah, this time from the left, crossed deep for Ramirez to head back across goal and Negredo climbed above defender Philipp Wollscheid to bundle the ball into the net.
The visitors gradually started to work their way into a physical game – there were four bookings in eight minutes, the last of them for Given as he fell foul of reinforced dissent rules after racing from his line to protest over Ramirez’s challenge on Erik Pieters – with Bojan Krkic and Shaqiri belatedly finding their feet.
But it was the Teessiders, despite losing Marten de Roon to a hamstring injury, who continued to threaten on a more regular basis and they were denied a second when Ramirez fired a left-foot shot across Given from the corner of the penalty area and saw it clip a post.
The former Southampton midfielder was enjoying his afternoon and he rattled the goal-frame once again in stoppage time, curling a corner against the crossbar with the keeper beaten.
Ramirez enjoyed a successful loan spell at the Riverside Stadium last season, and his opening-day performance explained just why they worked so hard to bring him back.
He was at the centre of much of their best work in the hole behind lone striker Negredo.
For their part, the Potters offered little of note going forward with Marko Arnautovic blazing wide after cutting inside from Pieters’ pass and Shaqiri wasting a good one-two with the Austrian by firing into the side-netting after collecting a deflected return pass.
Stoke’s efforts to force their way back into the game were laboured and Arnautovic volleyed well wide after bursting onto Pieters’ intelligent 58th-minute throw-in, although the home side should probably have extended their lead on the hour when Adomah was set free down the right but could only pick out defender Phil Bardsley, with Negredo and Stewart Downing awaiting his pass.
Arnautovic was the visitors’ biggest threat but simply could not find his bearings, to the point where he uprooted a corner flag with his 64th-minute shot.
Shaqiri finally made an impact with 23 minutes remaining when he curled a fine free-kick over the defensive wall and looked on as Valdes could only help the ball into a bottom corner of the net.
Karanka added: “I can’t be disappointed, especially with the performance and with the attitude of the team.
“It’s true that maybe we should have won the game but we can’t forget that three months ago we were playing in the Championship and they finished in the Premier League in ninth position, so I am more than pleased.”