Shootout drama in Toon’s close shave
THE FA Cup can be a sticking plaster for Newcastle during this season of cuts and bruises, and for much of this game it looked like being ripped away. That would have left Eddie Howe wounded and exposed.
As it is, a penalty shootout victory keeps alive a campaign of turbulence, and this match was very much in keeping with those ups and downs.
It looked like ending on a high when, in extra time, Anthony Gordon and Sean Longstaff were faced one- on- one with Aynsley Pears in the six-yard area, only for the Blackburn keeper to save from both in quick succession. Defender Scott Wharton then blocked in the goalmouth from Bruno Guimaraes.
But that did not tell the story of Blackburn’s superiority and Newcastle’s best player was goalkeeper Martin Dubravka. How fitting it was, then, that he saved the decisive penalty from Dominic Hyam to send Newcastle into the last eight of a competition they last won 69 years ago.
For Howe, there was huge relief, but also concern on a night when, without Dubravka, they would have been dumped out with little cause for complaint.
There was at least an immediate improvement on Saturday’s performance down at Arsenal — a 4-1 defeat in which Howe said every aspect of their game was off — for Newcastle won a corner inside nine minutes, something they failed to achieve in 90 at the Emirates. Still, nothing came of it. In fact, nothing came of anything the visitors did during the opening half an hour.
Blackburn would have led on 31 minutes if not for the fingertips of Dubravka, who flicked a Tyrhys Dolan strike around the post.
Home playmaker Sammie Szmodics was the game’s most dangerous player and he was twice denied by Dubravka before the break. The second of those efforts, a rising drive in the 44th minute, looked like delivering the opening goal before Dubravka intervened to divert over the bar.
That ball landed among the 7,000 travelling fans, not that you would have known they were so strong in number, so subdued had they become amid a pedestrian showing from their team.
The half-time whistle, for Howe at least, was a relief. One passage in which three of his players all misplaced passes to each other just about captured their opening 45 minutes. If the head coach was expecting a response to Arsenal — he criticised his players publicly for the first time this week — he did not get one.
New half, same story. John Buckley was dictating the contest from the middle of the park and, again, Newcastle needed Dubravka to preserve parity when he snaffled a 20-yard blast from the midfielder.
But where was Newcastle’s midfield? It has been a problem all season against Premier League opposition, the intensity that was once their identity having faded in the middle of the park. This, however, was second-tier opposition, and still they offered little control.
A set-piece felt their most likely route to goal and Jamaal Lascelles connected with Kieran Trippier’s deep corner only to see his header cleared from the line by Kyle McFadzean.
That near miss sparked Newcastle into life and Longstaff soon set Gordon clear. It was their first attack of real conviction but Gordon’s finish was not nearly as convincing, prodding straight at Pears.
Still, it left the Magpies in the ascendancy and their 71st-minute breakthrough felt deserved, if only for the previous five minutes of belated dominance. Substitute Miguel Almiron drew back for Gordon on the penalty spot and, with less time to ponder this finish, he snapped instinctively beyond Pears. But Blackburn’s spirit was not broken and the goal that forced extra-time arrived on 79 minutes.
Lascelles attempted to head the ball to safety, missed it and watched from the floor as Dilan Markanday’s shot was brushed onto the bar by Dubravka before Szmodics followed up to score.
BLACKBURN (3-4-2-1): Pears 7.5; Hyam 6.5, McFadzean 7 (Koumetio 72min, 5), Wharton 7; Brittain 6.5, Buckley 7.5 (Garrett 64, 5.5), Moran 6 (Ayari 63, 6), Chrisene 6,5; Szmodics 7.5, Dolan 6.5 (Markanday 64, 6); Gallagher 6 (Sigurdsson 46, 6).
Scorer: Szmodics 79.
Booked: Moran, Chrisene, Ayari.
Manager: John Eustace 6.5.
NEWCASTLE (4-3-3): DUBRAVKA 8; Trippier 6 (Livramento 90, 6), Schar 6, Lascelles 5, Burn 5; Longstaff 5.5, Guimaraes 6, Willock 6 (Miley 62, 6 (Anderson 116)); Murphy 5 (Almiron 62, 7), Isak 5.5 (Barnes 62, 5), Gordon 6.5.
Scorer: Gordon 71. Booked: Lascelles, Longstaff. Manager: Eddie Howe 5. Referee: Jarred Gillett 7. Attendance: 22,730.
2 THIS is just the second time that Newcastle have reached the FA Cup quarter-finals in the last 18 seasons. When they last reached this stage, they lost to Manchester City in 2020.