Manchester City 3-1 Newcastle: Dominant first half for Cityzens ensures first League Cup final in four years
It is master versus apprentice in the Carabao Cup final after Pep Guardiola’s Manchester City defeated Newcastle to set up a date with Mikel Arterta’s Arsenal at Wembley.
City entered the second leg of the semifinal two goals to the good after their 2-0 victory at St James’ Park three weeks before, and three goals in the first half an hour took away any meaning left in the tie.
Guardiola’s side started in control and soon raced into a lead only seven minutes in. Omar Marmoush found space on the inside left but soon ran into Dan Burn, who slide tackled to block the shot, only for it to rebound off the forward and then over Aaron Ramsdale.
Newcastle soon had the opportunity to score at the other end, which might have made a positive result somewhat conceivable, but after a two-on-one situation in which Anthony Gordon found Joe Willock with only James Trafford to beat, the Newcastle player failed in his attempt to round the goalkeeper, Trafford making the save.
Three goals down, Newcastle decided to throw caution to the wind and an open game ensued. Chances dropped to both sides. Tijjani Reinjders’ curling shot was tipped over by Trafford. Gordon had only Trafford to beat but he failed to get his attempt past the onrushing goalkeeper.
What did Newcastle have to lose by going all out? Turns out a little more than they already had . Reijnders played Semenyo through on the outside and after the Ghanaian’s low cross was poorly cleared by Kieran Trippier, Marmoush was on hand to head in and double the lead.
Only three minutes later, City had their third. The home side broke and Reijnders raced down the centre of the pitch before sending the ball into Semenyo on the right. The winger had the ball stolen off him by Burn as he tried to dribble past the defender, but it came back to Reijnders, who tucked it into the bottom corner from 10 yards.
Five-nil down on aggregate it was all over for Newcastle with 60 minutes left to be played. They continued to give away chances. Dan Burn clipped Semenyo and could have been punished with a penalty, before Lewis Hall gave away possession and City broke through Semenyo and Reijnders. The resulting chance bounced off Ramsdale for a corner.
Newcastle’s anguish was compounded by Gordon going down injured at half time. A purely futile and even costly outing was not brightened by a much more improved performance in the second half, nor by Antony Elanga’s excellent strike just after the hour mark to make it 3-1 and 5-2 on aggregate. There might have been more to say had Yoane Wissa not been offside when he crossed low for Harvey Barnes – on for Gordon – to score just seven minutes later.
Haaland had a chance to increase his side’s lead late on but an excellent save from Ramsdale denied the Norwegian.
