Manchester City ended Newcastle’s Carabao Cup title defence with a 5-1 aggregate victory, having won the second leg 3-1 at the Etihad Stadium.
Omar Marmoush put City in front in the seventh minute with a looped hit from a mistimed sliding tackle by Newcastle’s Dan Burn which deflected onto the Egyptian’s left leg and over Aaron Ramsdale.
Marmoush then headed in City’s second goal from a fumbled 29th-minute clearance of Antoine Semenyo’s cross by Kieran Trippier.
Tijani Reijnders further extended City’s lead on the night after he played a 32nd-minute one-two counter-attacking move with Semenyo, which the Dutchman finished to give City a 3-0 lead at half-time.
Anthony Elanga netted a consolatory goal for Newcastle through his 62nd-minute finish but Man City eventually prevailed 5-1 on aggregate to reach their tenth final in this competition.
Marmoush post-match spoke to Sky Sports in which he praised City for their team spirit to reach the final.
“We showed a very good mentality. We were together as a team, from the first minute we were very focused on the job. We showed our mentality and passion and are very happy to reach the final.”
Marmoush is still chasing his first piece of silverware as a Man City player and is keen to achieve the title in honour of those who have walked that path before him at City and those who are new to the club.
“It’s one of the biggest clubs in the world. We are here to win trophies. We give our best every day to reach these finals and win silverware. Hopefully we can do it for all the new players and also the players that were here. They showed us that every medal and every silverware is important.”
Arsenal now await Man City in the Final at Wembley Stadium on Sunday 22 March at 4:30pm GMT.
With their 2-0 aggregate lead from the first leg, Man City could of sat back and protected that lead but they immediately took the fight to Newcastle from the first whistle.
That pressure soon paid off in the seventh minute as a forward pass into the box was met by Marmoush but Burn mistimed a sliding tackle, which saw the ball deflect up onto Marmoush’s legs and looped over a helpless Ramsdale into the net to further extend City’s aggregate lead.
Newcastle almost responded two minutes later after Anthony Gordon played a diagonal pass forward for Joe Willock, yet James Trafford was alert to block Willock’s shot, then again in the 21st minute in vice-versa after Willock set up Gordon with a knockdown header.
City meanwhile continued to control proceedings as Reijnders and Semenyo fired shots wide across the face of goal, whilst Phil Foden saw a 18th-minute shot blocked.
City’s persistence eventually unlocked a second goal in the 29th minute after Semenyo found himself on the left flank and played a cross to the far-right post, where Marmoush was free to nod in his second goal despite Kieran Trippier fumbled an attempted clearance.
Any faint hopes that Newcastle had of staging a dramatic comeback to extend their title defence were effectively extinguished three minutes later, after Reijnders broke forward on a quick counter-attack and played an one-two pass into the box with Semenyo which he finished off past Ramsdale’s reach.
Newcastle however finished the opening half on top but couldn’t find a breakthrough goal to reignite the tie despite Man City having built a 5-0 aggregate lead at the break, which led the Magpies boss to make a triple substitution as Jacob Murphy, Elanga and Yoane Wissa were introduced for the second half.
Reijnders however nearly dealt a further blow from Marmoush’s 55th-minute pass following Matheus Nunes’ diagonal long ball, yet the Dutch midfielder rifled wide.
That slice of luck sparked Newcastle into life as just seven minutes later, Malick Thiaw played Elanga up the right flank from which the Swede cut in and curled his finish into the far-left corner to reduce the Magpies’ arrears.
Harvey Barnes then almost pulled a further goal back for the visitors as he turned in Wissa’s 68th-minute square-ball pass, but his goal was disallowed after he had been offside during the initial build-up play.
Barnes in response nearly turned provider just two minutes later as he played a pass into the box towards Elanga from the left, yet the Swede rifled his shot wide of the right corner much to the visitors’ frustrations and he then managed to shoot wide of the opposite corner in the 81st minute.
City substitute, Erling Haaland almost wrapped up their victory after he chased down a 83rd-minute forward pass from fellow sub, Rayan Cherki, yet Ramsdale was alert to block the Norwegian’s shot.
Cherki again set up Haaland just three minutes later but with a shorter pass which the latter curled towards the bottom-right corner, but Ramsdale again blocked his shot then Rodri’s attempt from the subsequent corner-kick.
City eventually clung on for a comfortable routine victory to set up a blockbuster final against Arsenal who are also their main Premier League title rivals, and marks the second time that the pair have met in the competition’s showpiece after City won their first clash in the 2017-18 edition.
What’s Next?
Man City return their focus to their Premier League title challenge on Sunday 8 February, as they visit Liverpool in a tricky clash at Anfield in a 4:30pm GMT.
Newcastle meanwhile chase European qualification via the top flight as they host Brentford at St James’ Park on Saturday 7 February at 5:30pm.
Teams
Manchester City: James Trafford, Matheus Nunes, Abdukodir Khusanov, Nathan Ake (Alleyne 46′), Nico O’Reilly (Rodri 71′), Nicolas Gonzalez (Lewis 83′), Antoine Semenyo (Haaland 71′), Phil Foden (Cherki 72′), Tijani Reijnders, Rayan Ait-Nouri, Omar Marmoush
Substitutes: Erling Haaland, Rayan Cherki, Gianluigi Donnarumma, Sverre Nypan, Rodri, Rico Lewis, Max Alleyne, Ryan McAidoo, Ruben Dias
Newcastle: Aaron Ramsdale, Malick Thiaw, Sven Botman, Dan Burn, Kieran Trippier (Osula 76′), Jacob Ramsey, Sandro Tonali, Lewis Hall (Murphy 46′), Joe Willock (Elanga 46′), Nick Woltemade (Wissa 46′), Anthony Gordon (Barnes 44′)
Substitutes: Harvey Barnes, Anthony Elanga, Jacob Murphy, Alex Murphy, Sean Neave, William Osula, Nick Pope, Leo Shahar, Yoane Wissa
Referee – Tony Harrington
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