Eddie Howe was delighted with Newcastle’s response after they reached the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup for the third year in a row with a 2-0 win against Chelsea.
The Magpies bounced back from Sunday’s Premier League defeat against the same opponents at Stamford Bridge as two first-half goals sealed victory on Tyneside.
A mistake at the back allowed Alexander Isak to put Newcastle ahead in the 23rd minute and they extended their lead just three minutes later when Joe Willock’s deflected header was turned into his own net by Axel Disasi.
“We needed a performance and a result, I think we got that tonight,” Newcastle head coach Howe said.
“Especially in the first half, I thought it was hallmark us at our best; front foot, really good energy, good feel, good quality, good attitude – most importantly – and a massive win for us.”
Victory in the competition comes after a dip in form from Newcastle in the league.
The Magpies are without a win in five league games, but Howe hopes his side can take confidence from their cup victory.
“Confidence is always a fragile thing, you can do lots of different things, but winning football matches is the only thing that gives footballers confidence, in my opinion,” he said.
“I think that was a really important moment for us, we looked like we had goals in us today, scored two, could’ve scored more.
“There’s areas to improve, but I think just generally we’ll feel much better about ourselves tonight.”
Newcastle, who will face Brentford in the last eight, reached the final of the Carabao Cup in 2023 and were quarter-finalists last season, when they were knocked out by Chelsea on penalties.
Howe added: “The more games of this calibre we can win, these are the acid tests for where we want to be.
“We narrowly missed out against Chelsea last year for a semi-final, that was agonising for us, but fingers crossed we can go a step further this year.”
Chelsea recovered from a tricky first half to put in a much-improved performance after the break at St James’ Park, with their best chance coming from Joao Felix’s near miss.
Blues boss Enzo Maresca named an entirely different starting XI from the weekend’s league clash, a decision he defended post-match.
He said: “I think it works if we analyse the performance, if we analyse the result it didn’t work, but for 22-23 minutes, until their goal, we were in control.
“Then after the goal we lost control for 10 minutes, where we also conceded the second one.
“Again, the last 10 minutes of first half we had two clear chances that unfortunately we didn’t score. Second half we were in control of the game.
“The most important thing is the result. But the performance, I think we lost the game because of 10 minutes after the first goal we conceded, then for the rest we were quite good.”
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