The Magpies took advantage of Bournemouth full-back Adam Smith’s own goal in the 67th minute of Tuesday’s Carabao Cup Round of 16 matches to win and advance to the quarterfinals.
At St James’ Park, manager Eddie Howe started with the same effective starting XI he has used for the majority of this Premier League season. Dan Burn was on the left side of the defense, and Joe Willock and Sean Longstaff started in the midfield.
Fabian Schar, Keiran Trippier, Callum Wilson, Nick Pope, and Bruno Guimaraes—all five World Cup participants—returned to the team and made it all the way to the starting lineup in their first game back.
Seeing it was a relief after all they
Pope had to make a few minor saves, but Bournemouth’s overall chances were limited as Newcastle maintained most of the pressure and possession.
The postgame stats told the story of this match: 63% possession in favor of Newcastle, 512 to 302 in overall passes, 6 corners to 2, and 17 shots to 6 all favoring the Magpies.
It was a game where the clinical edge wasn’t there in the final third with a bunch of rusty bodies still around, but the constant pressure and crosses finally broke Bournemouth down when Smith bounced Trippier’s cross right into his own net.
Trippier had a fantastic game overall, routinely cutting up and in with Almiron higher up the right touchline constantly providing his services to both near and back posts.
Allain St. Maximin, Chris Wood, Jacob Murphy, and Jonjo Shelvey were subbed in later in the second half to close out the match in front of a reported 51,579 Newcastle faithful supporters.
Newcastle will find out their quarter-finals opponent following the final Round of 16 matches between Liverpool and Man City on Thursday.
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