NEWCASTLE came looking for a miracle but were instead treated to a harsh dose of reality on a chastening night when their Carabao Cup reign threatened to end with a whiff of humiliation.
It has been a spirited trophy defence from Eddie Howe’s side, but it fell flat at the penultimate hurdle, the mountain they had given themselves to climb from a two-goal first-leg defeat proving insurmountable at a venue where they simply don’t tend to win.
City added another three goals to that tally in a little over the first half an hour to stroll through to next month’s Wembley final against Arsenal on what swiftly became a non-event of a night in East Manchester.
At least for the visitors it didn’t adopt the proportions of City’s 10-1 FA Cup victory here over Exeter last month. At times it looked like it could.
Pep Guardiola even had the luxury of making half-a-dozen changes and giving Erling Haaland most of the evening off on the way to inflicting a 12th consecutive Etihad Stadium defeat on the Tynesiders.
The Magpies at least had the consolation of scoring their first goal here for seven-and-a-half years when substitute Anthony Elanga belatedly opened his Newcastle account with a left foot drive which found the net off a post just after the hour. The Swede missed a sitter minutes later to compound a night to forget for his team.
Chelsea went for the conservative approach in their failed attempt to overhaul a deficit at the Gunners but Newcastle were rather more gung-ho in their efforts to claw their way back after last month’s first meeting.
They paid heavily for their ambition as Omar Marmoush continued his rich run of goalscoring form against them to push Guardiola a step closer to adding a fifth League Cup win to his ridiculous CV.
It wasn’t all one-way traffic, and James Trafford was among City’s best performers in the first half. That will be of little consolation to Newcastle, who must return here in the Premier League in a little over a fortnight on the back of a gruelling Champions League trip to Qarabag.
To the backdrop of an astonishing number of empty seats for such a high-profile cup semi-final, Newcastle really needed to score the first goal. Instead, just seven minutes had elapsed when it fell to City thanks to a large slice of luck to kill tie, and the already sombre atmosphere, stone dead.
The visitors were slow to close down on the edge of their box as Marmoush burst into the area. Dan Burn came across to cover, but the defender’s sliding challenge succeeded only in the ball rebounding off the shin of Marmoush and over Aaron Ramsdale into the net.
Newcastle should have been level on the night within two minutes as the hosts were caught short of cover at a counter-attack. Joe Willock was put through on inside the area with only Trafford to beat, but the midfielder lacked conviction and was dispossessed by the Manchester City keeper in his efforts to round him.
Trafford was the busier of the keepers in the first 25 minutes and the one-time Newcastle target had to be alert to come out and block a goal-bound effort from Anthony Gordon after the forward latched onto a Burn flick into the box.
Trafford saved again from Kieran Trippier’s free kick but the Newcastle skipper was soon involved at the other end, playing an inadvertent role as Marmoush doubled the advantage.
From a four-man City move stemming from the edge of their own area, Trippier made a hash of his attempt to clear a deflected Antoine Semenyo cross from the left to leave the lurking Marmoush with a simple task to head into an empty net from close range.
After his 14-minute hat-trick here against them a year ago, five of the Egyptian’s 12 City goals have come at the Etihad against the hapless Geordies.
The hosts’ third arrived in similar circumstances three minutes later as Newcastle were again cut to shreds on the counter attack.
Tijani Reijnders was allowed to run 60 yards from inside his own half before feeding Semenyo, who enjoyed a fortunate deflection in eventually providing a return pass for the Dutch midfielder to fire home from a dozen yards.
From that point it was damage limitation for the soon to be deposed holders. Gordon clearly didn’t fancy the thankless task and limped off before half-time.
Yoane Wissa, one of three interval substitutes, should have reduced the deficit with his first touch but fired wastefully wide after being put through on goal.
Elanga showed him how to do it with a fine finish soon after, but it was scant consolation in a non-event of a second half both sides would rather have done without.
Trafford 8; Nunes 6, Khusanov 6, Ake 6 (Alleyne 46, 6), O’Reilly 7 (Rodri 71, 6); Gonzalez 7 (Lewis 83, 6); Semenyo 7 (Haaland 71, 6), Foden 7 (Cherki 72, 6), Reijnders 7, Ait-Nouri 7; Marmoush 8.
Ramsdale 6; Thiaw 5, Botman 5, Burn 5; Trippier 3 (Osula 76, 5), Willock 4 (Elanga 46, 7), Ramsey 3, Tonali 4, Hall 6 (Murphy 46, 5) ; Woltemade 3 (Wissa 46, 4), Gordon 5 (Barnes 44, 6).
Tony Harrington.
