Last season, the Magpies saw off Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool as they won their first piece of major domestic silverware for seven decades, but even that looks easy in comparison to the task that now faces them at the Etihad at the start of next month.
Not only do Newcastle have to end a run of 11 matches in City’s home stadium without a victory, they have to triumph by three goals. Make it to Wembley, and they will have done something truly special.
Their task looked like being tough enough as last night’s first leg headed past the 90-minute mark with City leading through Antoine Semenyo’s strike at the start of the second half, but it became just about impossible when Rayan Cherki rolled home the visitors’ second goal in stoppage time.
Semenyo also had a second effort of his own controversially disallowed, and while Newcastle twice hit the woodwork through Yoane Wissa and Bruno Guimaraes, they were well beaten by the time the final whistle blew. They have cherished being Carabao Cup holders, but their reign is surely nearing its end.
Arsenal last year; Manchester City this time around. Newcastle certainly don’t get it easy in their Carabao Cup semi-finals. Eddie Howe went as strong as he could, but fielding Semenyo in a starting side that also featured Erling Haaland, Phil Foden and Jeremy Doku, Pep Guardiola went even stronger.
Doku gave Lewis Miley his toughest examination since his switch to right-back, but at the opposite end, Murphy was every bit as dangerous for Newcastle in the early stages.
His fifth-minute cross almost resulted in Wissa opening the scoring, but while Murphy picked out his team-mate, Newcastle’s number nine could only stab over a left-footed shot from the left of the 18-yard box.
Joelinton glanced a header wide as the Magpies continued to probe, and the Brazilian was involved in a first-half shoving match with Nico O’Reilly that earned both players a yellow card and summed up the general tetchiness that was always simmering just below the surface.
As ever, both Joelinton and Guimaraes snapped around the City midfield, denying their opponents time and space and successfully diminishing their creativity levels. That City entered first-half stoppage time without having recorded a single attempt at goal, either on or off target, was testament to Newcastle’s frenetic defensive work and excellent organisation. And, perhaps, also an indication that a goalless draw wasn’t a bad result for Pep Guardiola’s side, hence their reluctance to be overly-ambitious.
By the time the break arrived, the Magpies’ jinx had struck again, with Murphy trudging around the touchline after what looked like a recurrence of the hamstring issue that has been troubling him for most of the last month.
Barnes replaced him, and as Newcastle began the second half on the front foot, so the hosts hit the woodwork twice in the space of a minute. Trafford, who turned down a summer move to Tyneside in order to join City, make a sensational save from Wissa, touching the striker’s looping header onto the crossbar after Hall crossed from the left.
Newcastle kept the ball alive, but when Guimaraes found a pocket of space on the left of the box, he drilled a low shot against the post. It proved a crucial moment as, just three minutes later, City were claiming the lead.
Doku slid over a low cross from the left, Bernardo Silva touched the ball across the face of goal, and after bursting ahead of Gordon, Semenyo made it two goals in two games as a City player as he turned the ball home from close range.
Prior to this season, Semenyo would not have been on the pitch as he would have been cup-tied, having played for Bournemouth in their Carabao Cup second-round defeat to Brentford in August. A change in the rules meant he was able to represent two different clubs in the same competition, which will only have added to Newcastle’s frustration.
Nine minutes later, however, and it was City left frustrated as they had what looked like being a second goal chalked off. Semenyo flicked home from a corner from the edge of the six-yard box, but Erling Haaland, in a marginally offside position, was deemed to be interfering with play. Given that the ball was going in whatever Haaland did or didn’t do, it felt like a major let-off for the Magpies.
There was no escape in stoppage time though. Cherki’s backheel sent Rayan Ait-Nouri scampering towards the touchline, and the substitutes combined to complete their one-two with Cherki stroking home a slick first-time finish.