Newcastle 2-1 Southampton (3-1 agg): Sean Longstaff brace books Carabao Cup final place
Newcastle United have booked their place in the Carabao Cup final thanks to a 3-1 aggregate win over Southampton.
The Magpies won the first leg at St. Mary's 1-0, before winning the second at St. James' Park 2-1 thanks to a brilliant brace from Sean Longstaff.
Inside the opening five minutes, Newcastle hit the front thanks to local boy Longstaff. After some intricate play in the midfield, the ball was played out to Kieran Trippier who cut back infield and squared the ball to Longstaff. The midfielder made no mistake with his subsequent finish, side-footing past Gavin Bazunu into the bottom left corner of the net.
Minutes later, Longstaff so nearly doubled Newcastle's lead. A lovely slide through ball from Bruno Guimaraes found Longstaff on the right of the penalty area but, after controlling well, the English midfielder could only drill the ball wide of the post.
Longstaff would then bag his brace in the 20th minute. Yet another fantastic team move would culminate in Miguel Almiron cutting the ball back into the path of Longstaff from the left of the penalty area, and Longstaff made no mistake with his finish - firing into the corner of the goal with aplomb.
Southampton did manage to find a way back into the game on the half hour mark thanks to a wonderful strike from Che Adams. The Scotland international fired the ball into the bottom right corner of the net from fully 25-yards out to make it 2-1 on the night.
The Saints pressed forward with real intent to get a second goal in the second half and really, really should have in the 72nd minute when Romeo Lavia played a qonderful ball through to Adam Armstrong. Clean through on goal, with just Nick Pope to beat, however, the forward saw his tame effort on goal well save by the Newcastle number one.
Newcastle were then forced to play the final 10 minutes with 10 men when Bruno Guimaraes saw red for a nasty challenge on Samuel Edozie, but they held on to book their place in the final.