Newcastle 1-0 Bournemouth (A Smith 67′ og)
ST JAMES’ PARK — If the Carabao Cup felt like a comedown after Sunday’s World Cup final for the ages, no one told Eddie Howe or Newcastle United.
A full-strength side that included five of his World Cup warriors was a vivid illustration of just how important this competition remains to Howe. And in that, he captures the mood pretty succinctly on Tyneside.
Newcastle have gone 67 years without lifting a domestic trophy and their passage into the last eight of the competition will inevitably get supporters dreaming. They are still four games from glory but with this remodelled team and new ownership there is belief that something special can be achieved in short order.
They will have to improve on a hard-fought victory over Bournemouth, but the sense of slowly cranking the whirring engine of intensity that had secured six straight wins before the mid-season break might be foreboding for the rest of the teams left in the competition. They will get better and the general standard of football surely will too.
The buzz in Premier League circles is about how players embedded in World Cup squads will react to the abrupt return to the cold comforts of domestic football, with sports science teams tasked with ensuring the Qatar comedown isn’t too harsh.
It feels like that might be a bit of a big ask. After events in the desert this last month, the Carabao Cup felt like a particularly stodgy dessert at times with all six of the game’s World Cup participants struggling to find their rhythm.
Callum Wilson lasted 75 minutes and while he had a goal ruled out for offside there was a sense that he was still feeling his way back into the domestic game. Ditto Bruno Guimaraes, just 11 days after departing Doha nursing his share of Brazil’s crushing disappointment at a World Cup opportunity wasted. He made it to 86 minutes and was withdrawn to a standing ovation, but will need to move through a few gears over the coming weeks if Newcastle are to consolidate their Champions League spot when the bigger tests emerge.
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It feels like a long while ago that a frustrated Scott Parker was swept out of the Vitality Stadium after Bournemouth shipped nine goals at Anfield. Las Vegas might have claimed ownership of the South Coast club since then but there’s something decidedly unshowy about the way Gary O’Neil has turned Bournemouth into a solid, coherent unit that demands respect and ingenuity to break down.
For long spells Newcastle weren’t able to solve the puzzle. A team turned into a whirling dervish of energy and intensity was always going to be at a disadvantage being made to take an enforced mid-season break and there were times when the lack of fluency told. Miguel Almiron, red hot before the World Cup break, inexplicably missed from a few yards out while Fabian Schär sent a rasping drive that was angled just wide of Mark Travers’s goal.
Newcastle had squeezed past Crystal Palace in the last round through penalties but few fancied a repeat. That was their first competitive shootout success on home soil in their history.
When hope was evaporating, help came from an unexpected source. Trippier conjured the sort of cross that leaves defenders petrified and Adam Smith diverted it past his own goalkeeper.
Bournemouth were not quite finished. Substitute Siriki Dembélé curled a cross into the corridor of uncertainty in the penalty area that Dominic Solanke pounced on, only to find Nick Pope in imposing form.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/Ur3cEoK
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