Newcastle United have booked their place in the Carabao Cup final for the second time in three seasons after a commanding 2-0 victory over Arsenal in the semi-final second leg, sealing a dominant 4-0 aggregate triumph.
Goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon ensured Eddie Howe’s men extended their advantage from the first leg at the Emirates on January 7. With this win, the Magpies will now head to Wembley on March 16, where they will face either Tottenham or Liverpool, who contest their semi-final second leg on Thursday night.
Newcastle almost made a dream start at a charged St James’ Park. Alexander Isak, in red-hot form with 14 goals in his last 13 games, broke behind Arsenal’s defense and found the net with a clinical finish.
The victory marks another milestone in Newcastle’s resurgence under Eddie Howe, as they continue their pursuit of silverware.
“We had so many expectations to believe that we could turn it around. We didn’t generate momentum, especially in the first half, the game started in the first action almost with them scoring and then the goal being denied.
“Then we had the moment, two big moments, with Martin. We didn’t capitalise and in the next action, they scored the goal and obviously the game shifted and then you need to stay cool to score a goal as early as possible.
“We didn’t manage to do that in the first half, had another big chance, and then in the second half, we started to struggle as the game went by. We didn’t generate enough situations in the final third and the game started to get away from us.” Said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta.
“I wouldn’t like [to say that]. Especially when we lose a game, physically we were tired and you know we played so many games, we played so many games every three days, and we knew that this was going to be a really high-intensity one. I think emotionally as well, it was a very different game that we needed to get there to believe right until the end that we could do it, and before that the game got away from us.” He added.
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