Newcastle United reached a second League Cup final in three seasons as they overwhelmed Arsenal 2-0 at a feverish St James’ Park on Wednesday to complete a crushing 4-0 aggregate win.
Moments after Arsenal’s Martin Ødegaard wasted a chance to halve the deficit, Jacob Murphy tucked away a rebound in the 19th minute after Alexander Isak‘s shot hit the woodwork.
Arsenal, surprisingly beaten 2-0 at home in the first leg, suffered another off-night and their fate was sealed when Anthony Gordon punished a defensive error in the 52nd minute to put the hosts in cruise control.
Newcastle, who have not won a major trophy since 1955, will play either Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the Wembley final next month when they hope to go one better than 2023 when they lost in the final to Manchester United.
Tottenham hold a 1-0 lead ahead of Thursday’s second leg at Anfield.
Of the 32 previous occasions that a team has lost the first leg of a League Cup semifinal by two goals or more, only once has a team recovered the deficit to reach the final.
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Based on the evidence of their crushing 5-1 victory over Manchester City on Sunday, it seemed entirely feasible that Arsenal might buck that trend and ruin the Geordie party.
In the end it was a night of unbridled joy on Tyneside as the club’s long-suffering fans scent another shot at silverware.
As it turned out, the outcome of the tie was probably decided just before the midway point of the first half.
Had Arsenal skipper Ødegaard taken a golden opportunity instead of slicing a shot hurriedly against the outside of the post, Newcastle might have been consumed by anxiety, especially as they had already had an Isak effort ruled out by VAR for the tightest of offside decisions.
A minute after Ødegaard’s miss, the marauding Isak went through on goal again and his curling shot ricocheted off the post to Murphy who stayed ice cool to steer the rebound home from a tight angle.
“I was very happy (Ødegaard’) missed it,” Newcastle’s Brazilian skipper Bruno Guimarães said. “That was a big opportunity for them and then I think less than two minutes later we score. It was a game changer.
“I felt anxious before the game, big game, Arsenal a top, top team but when we play like that we become an amazing team. Play like that and we can dream big.”
Arsenal suffered another blow when Gabriel Martinelli left the pitch with a hamstring injury before halftime and their evening was to get even worse early in the second half.
The visitors’ defence was unusually nervous and William Saliba was lucky that Gordon failed to score from distance after dispossessing him and catching keeper David Raya off his line.
But Arsenal failed to heed the warning and minutes later Raya’s casual pass out was nicked by Gordon who then dispatched a first-time shot past the Spanish keeper and inside the post.
With the pre-match tension lifted, Newcastle were able to cruise through the rest of the game against an Arsenal side who will now have to dust themselves down and focus on trying to chase down Liverpool in the Premier League title race.
