The match was already largely resolved in the first half, which ended 3-0 for Guardiola’s men. The final against Arsenal, at Wembley, on March 22nd
The most beautiful final. The Carabao Cup offers one last dream match, on March 22nd at Wembley, with Manchester City having booked their ticket to face Arsenal with a clear 3-1 in the semi-final return to Newcastle, already beaten 2-0 in the first leg. There was no story at the Etihad, with the second act already decided in the 32nd minute by the cynicism in front of goal from Pep Guardiola’s team and the defensive disasters of Eddie Howe’s. There promises to be much more in the Wembley final, with Arsenal on a Quadruple mission and City trying to question the Gunners’ superiority.
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City earned the final. He played better in the first leg, dominated the return leg, immediately closing the score and then managing the second half thanks to a 5-goal lead in the two-legged match. He dominated thanks to Omar Marmoush, in the right place at the right time for the first goal in the 7th minute (Dan Burn’s sliding attempt to stop him hits his shin and ends up behind Ramsdale) and 2-0 in the 29th minute (easy header from two steps after a disaster by Kieran Trippier): the Egyptian scores more easily than Erling Haaland when he sees Newcastle. The other great protagonist was Tijjani Reijnders, the X-Factor of Guardiola’s 4-2-Fantasia well beyond the 3-0 goal. Howe had the not-so-brilliant idea of having Sven Botman follow the Dutchman up to midfield, with the former Milan player often burning his compatriot by taking advantage of the holes in Newcastle’s defense centrally. It was one of the winning moves, because in Guardiola’s formation the starting forwards Marmoush and Antoine Semenyo had to spread out on the wings favoring the insertions of the creatives Reijnders and Foden (still far from his best form). The fantastic City of the first half faltered in the second half, as happens too often lately: they conceded the 3-1 from Elanga in the 62nd minute, risked several times to concede another which would have allowed Newcastle to really start to believe in that “We win 6-5” that their fans continued to sing for a good part of the match. The decline in the second half (at least until the arrival of Haaland, who tried unsuccessfully to round off the result from the 71st minute) is something that Guardiola must work on, in view of the final with Arsenal but above all of the away match at Anfield on Sunday.
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Newcastle ends their defense of the Carabao Cup in the semi-finals, which they won last year by beating Liverpool in the last minute. The defeat against City is the third in the last four matches (the others in the Premier League with Liverpool and Aston Villa) and in the last eight Howe’s team has won only twice. It’s clear that something isn’t working, something that goes well beyond the injury of captain Bruno Guimarães or that of Joelinton, who together with Sandro Tonali are the pivots of the midfield. Newcastle are 11th in the Premier League and in two weeks the double match in the Champions League playoffs against Qarabag will begin. At the beginning of February Howe still hasn’t understood how much his team is worth, how to make it perform at its best, to make sure it plays as great as it did for most of the Champions League group. In the two matches against City the Magpies never came close to their best level: the damage of the elimination was added in the return match to the insult of the injury to Anthony Gordon, who was out with a muscle problem before the end of the first half. At that point the fans were already chanting “we will win 6-5”. And Newcastle’s dream of another season to remember was sadly back in the drawer.
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