Newcastle beat Leicester 2-0 at St James’ Park to secure their place in the League Cup semi-final for the first time in 47 years.
Eddie Howe’s side had a golden opportunity to take the lead inside the first minute when Sean Longstaff received the ball inside the area but saw his effort go over the bar.
It was a rampant start from the Magpies and just a minute later they were in again, this time it was Bruno Guimaraes with a missed chance as he fired his effort wide of the post.
Newcastle continued to pile on the pressure, launching attack after attack and giving Leicester virtually no time on the ball.
Guimaraes had another big chance on 15 minutes, striking his effort first time which went agonisingly wide of the pass.
Longstaff had another huge chance and perhaps Newcastle’s best chance of the half on 19 minutes, the 25-year-old latched onto the ball inside the box before firing an effort on goal from point-blank range which Danny Ward was able to tip round for a corner. A touch more composure and Newcastle would have been 1-0 up.
Leicester had to ride their luck but they weathered the storm well and began to grow in the game. As the game approached the half an hour mark The Foxes got on the ball more and were creating more chances.
Brendan Rodgers’ side had their best chance fifteen minutes from half time, Patson Daka burst into the box with the ball but opted to pass rather than shoot and it was cleared away.
The beginning of the second half was almost a carbon copy of the first, Howe’s side came flying out of the blocks and in less than a minute they had struck the woodwork, Joelinton fired an effort which took a slight deflection before cannoning off the post.
The Magpies continued to push on and after an hour they finally found the breakthrough, Dan Burn cut in superbly from the left, burst past two Leicester players and slid the ball past Ward with a finish a striker would be proud of.
It was a superb moment as Burn, a boyhood Newcastle supporter and former academy player, scored his first goal for the club.
Newcastle scored again 12 minutes later, Miguel Almiron threaded a superbly weighted pass through the Leicester defence into the path of Joelinton who struck his effort past Ward.
The introduction of Jamie Vardy saw Leicester pose more of a threat on the break, with the former England international having two big chances within the space of a minute – both efforts he could only drag wide.
Newcastle managed the closing stages of the game well and secured their place in the semi-final.
Speaking to the media before the match, Eddie Howe spoke of his desire to win things at Newcastle, with the Magpies boss saying one of his big motivations is for his side to “create our own history” before going on to say he’d love for people to be “talking about this team in 50/100 years”.
The way for that to happen is simple, Newcastle have to end their trophy drought, and they took one giant leap towards doing that. They are into their first League Cup semi-final since 1976 and one step closer to winning their first major trophy since 1955.
They were phenomenal from start to finish and thoroughly deserved the win. If they approach the semi-final and a potential final with the same intensity, commitment, energy levels and talent on the ball that they displayed, there is a chance Newcastle could be celebrating with silverware on February 26th.
Newcastle’s midfielder, Bruno Guimaraes, was, as he so often is, superb for Newcastle. He was at the heart of everything good the Magpies did, always looking to get on the ball and dictate proceedings. He played some fantastic incisive passes to get Newcastle into dangerous positions and without the ball he was strong too, winning five duels and making one tackle.
Newcastle United have made the semi-finals of a domestic cup for the first time since 2004/05.
In a post match media interview, Brendan Rodgers speaks to Sky: “Congratulations to Newcastle. I think they deserved to win the game. My players worked very hard, there was lots of endeavour, but we lacked quality with the ball. We gave the ball away very cheaply and took too many touches. We don’t have any arguments. Two soft goals as well. Overall, Newcastle were better. There’s still a big second part of the season for us. We want to push for the top ten, and the FA Cup is special. We have a history in it now having won it a couple of years ago.”
On his part, Eddie Howe said to Sky; “The lads were highly motivated tonight. We knew the importance of the game. I’m really pleased with their performance. They don’t stop. Right to the end we were trying to push.”
