Newcastle boss Howe: Cup defeat really hurts

Football
20 Dec 2023 • 7:49 AM MYT
Tribal Football
Tribal Football

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Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe admits their Carabao Cup quarterfinal defeat to Chelsea is tough to take.

Callum Wilson had Newcastle ahead on 16 minutes, but Mykhaylo Mudryuk found an injury-time equaliser to send the quarterfinal to spotkicks.

Chelsea won the shootout as goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic saved Matt Ritchie's effort after Kieran Trippier had previously fired his penalty wide.

Howe said: "Yeah it does, it hurts a lot. It's a very similar feeling to the end of the PSG game. The lads had committed so much, gave everything and we led for so long.

"We'd defended really, really well but we didn't get over the line.

"Whenever we concede we concede collectively not individually. I thought as a team defensively today we were excellent.

"Our shape was so good and we denied them really clearcut chances. We had to make some changes again due to injuries. I can't praise the players enough.

"We tried to refocus and forget the last part of the game and the fact that we were in a shootout to try to get to the semi-final. Penalty shootouts are always a lottery and we didn't quite win it then.

"I think we probably weren't as good technically as we would have wanted to be in the second half. In the first half we were a clear threat and scored our goal. But we lost our threat in the second half, even if we defended really well.

"We accepted our role in the game that we were going to defend and frustrate them. Like I say, we were a couple of minutes away from winning the game."