Newcastle United will take a one-goal lead into the second leg of their EFL Cup semi-final with Southampton following a 1-0 victory at St Mary’s.
Eddie Howe’s facet largely dominated on the south coast however will return to St James’ Park with a minor deficit after beating Nathan Jones’ 10-man Saints.
The guests seemed to make a quick begin and had an honest probability simply two minutes in, with Miguel Almiron teeing up Joe Willock to fireside from the sting of the penalty space, however his effort sailed over.
Sean Longstaff then flashed a cross by means of the six yard field as Newcastle’s aggressive opening continued, whereas Fabian Schar denied new Southampton signing Carlos Alcaraz from changing a James Ward-Prowse supply on the different finish.
One other nice probability for Willock flew over the bar when he volleyed over a deep ball from Kieran Trippier, earlier than Joelinton managed to seek out the again of the web after tapping in from shut vary amid a scramble within the Southampton field. Nevertheless, he was judged to have dealt with the ball and the objective was chalked off.
In the beginning of the second half, Almiron made a surging run down the left and managed to chop the ball again for Longstaff, just for his shot to fly excessive very like Willock’s alternative early within the recreation.
A speculative overhead kick from Sekou Mara flew huge earlier than the perfect probability of the sport was spurned by Joelinton, by some means skying from mere yards out following a intelligent low cross from Almiron.
Within the following minutes, Gavin Bazunu received a glove to a different cross from Almiron, however solely directed the ball into the trail of Sven Botman. The Dutchman’s instinctive first-time strike may solely discover the side-netting.
Nick Pope stood tall to disclaim Che Adams after the Scottish striker managed to interrupt away on a fast counter assault, earlier than once more holding out the striker after Newcastle didn’t clear a free-kick.
With slightly below 20 minutes remaining, Newcastle lastly broke the impasse. Alexander Isak managed to show and burst away from Duje Caleta-Automobile, crossing for Joelinton to faucet the Magpies forward.
However simply as quickly because the guests went in entrance, Southampton thought they’d discovered an equaliser. A hooked cross from Samuel Edozie was bundled in off of Adam Armstrong, however after a prolonged VAR test, the objective was dominated out for a handball in opposition to the ahead.
Within the dying embers, Caleta-Automobile was proven a second yellow card for a foul on Allan Saint-Maximin and the Saints had been diminished to 10 males.
Isak and Jacob Murphy went near including one other for Newcastle in stoppage time, however they needed to accept a one-goal win forward of subsequent week’s return leg.
GK: Gavin Bazunu (5); RB: Kyle Walker-Peters (6), CB: Lyanco (5), CB: Duje Caleta-Automobile (2), (), LB: Mohammed Salisu (6); CM: Ibrahima Diallo (4), CM: Carlos Alcaraz (7), RM: Moussa Djenepo (5), AM: James Ward-Prowse (5), LM: Mislav Orsic (4); CF: Sekou Mara (5)
SUBS: Adam Armstrong (5), Che Adams (5), Samuel Edozie (6), Romeo Lavia (5), Jan Bednarek (N/A)
GK: Nick Pope (7); RB: Kieran Trippier (6), CB: Fabian Schar (7), CB: Sven Botman (6), LB: Dan Burn (6); CM: Bruno Guimaraes (8), CM: Joe Willock (7), CM: Sean Longstaff (5); RW: Miguel Almiron (7), CF: Callum Wilson (4), LW: Joelinton (8)
SUBS: Alexander Isak (7), Allan Saint-Maximin (7), Jacob Murphy (5)
