· December 20 2024, 11:30
Newcastle United were the second ball out of the bowl last night as Jamie Redknapp and Jamie Carragher did the draw for the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Arsenal were first out of the bowl and Newcastle came out right after setting up the two-legged tie with a trip to the Emirates at the start of January and the return leg at St James' Park a month later.
The other semi-final saw Tottenham drawn against Liverpool with Spurs hosting the first leg.
There were no easy draws for this one, but there was one that would have caused many Newcastle fans to wave the white flag, and that would have been had we been drawn against Liverpool. Our record against them is shocking, so avoiding them was the ray of hope we needed.
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Never forget just how much we got under Arsenal's skin
Eddie Howe is looking forward to facing Arsenal in the Carabao Cup
Games between Arsenal and Newcastle have a tendency to be very entertaining, although not always for the right reasons as tempers can flare, but Eddie Howe, speaking to the media (via The Chronicle) on Friday morning ahead of Saturday's trip to Ipswich, admitted he's looking forward to the challenge.
"We were due a tough game whoever we got and I watched it with interest last night. The game beforehand was an unbelievable game to watch. When you get to this stage of the competition, you know the quality of the teams is very high.
"We've had some good games against Arsenal in the last couple of years so we'll look forward to that."
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Newcastle should be much stronger in the second leg
We've proved that we can beat Arsenal at St James' Park, so while Eddie Howe said he might have preferred the first leg to be at home, we think things work out better this way.
We'll be missing Bruno Guimaraes and Fabian Schar for the away leg, but having them both back (and an even more match-fit Sven Botman) available at St James' Park will give us that extra strength to push through at home and go on to win the tie.
We've got to keep the faith.