Newcastle stomps on sorry Arsenal's Wembley dream
Newcastle United secured its place in the Carabao Cup final at Wembley after comprehensively defeating Arsenal in their semi-final tie, winning the second leg at St James' Park 2-0 to make it a 4-0 victory on aggregate.
Goals from Jacob Murphy and Anthony Gordon in either half sealed the win, which was more than comfortable for Eddie Howe's side, just as it had been in the first leg at Emirates Stadium in January.
The Magpies were quick out of the gates, and thought they had increased the aggregate scoreline in the fourth minute, but Alexander Isak was shown to be offside by the video assistant referee (VAR) when he collected a throughball before firing past David Raya into Arsenal's goal.
Having survived that close call, Arsenal should have gone ahead in 18th minute when the ball fell kindly to Martin Odegaard inside the Newcastle box, but he fired wide agonisingly of the target.
Moments later, that miss would sting even more when Isak was again set free and fired a powerful shot on to the post as Raya dived to his right. The rebound fell directly into the path of Jacob Murphy, who guided the ball into the empty net.
The Gunners had arguably their best chance of the match when the Leandro Trossard fired on goal from close range in the 23rd minute, but Martin Dubravka got down sharply to make a fine save.
Anthony Gordon had an excellent chance to double the lead when Raya was again caught out of his goal in the 49th minute after a mistake by William Sailba, but Gordon's effort on the empty net curled wide of the left post.
But when Raya coughed up another error trying to play out from the back as Newcastle pressed high up the pitch, Gordon made no mistake, firing into the bottom corner he had missed minutes earlier to double the lead and effectively stamp Newcastle's Wembley ticket.
Arsenal had little to no impact on the match, with barely any chances created, and even when Myles Lewis-Skelly was presented with an excellent opportunity from a free header in the final minute of normal time, he could only put it way over the bar.
Newcastle will face either Premier League leader Liverpool or Tottenham Hotspur in the final at Wembley on 17 March (AEDT), with Ange Postecoglou's side holding a 1-0 advantage from the first leg at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
But a tough test awaits the Australian and his Spurs side at Anfield on Friday (AEDT) in the second leg.
Newcastle, meanwhile, has reached its third Carabao Cup final, progressing from all of its semi-final ties in the competition. It has also won all three home games at this stage.
It will be making its second appearance in this competition's showpiece match in the past three seasons, after doing so in 2022-2023, when it lost to Manchester United.
Its previous Carabao Cup final appearance came some time ago, in 1976.
