Newcastle vs Man City live: Rayan Cherki adds late second goal after controversial VAR incident

The second-leg matches will take place across 3/4 February.

As always the final will be held at Wembley, with the first final of the season coming on 22 March.

Tomorrow sees the second of the Carabao Cup final first legs, as Chelsea host Arsenal at Stamford Bridge in Liam Rosenior’s first home match in charge.

Newcastle United boss Eddie Howe was last to speak tp Sky Sports. He says that it was “a body blow” to concede again in the last minute”, thought it is “not fatal at the moment”.

“We're still in there fighting. I think maybe a bit of naivety with a minute to go on the clock, that we're still trying to chase a goal. In that moment, we needed to defend after we got our structure wrong from that position, and we got punished. I think the lads gave everything today under difficult circumstances after the extra time on Saturday, and there was a bit of fatigue in our performance, but I can't fault the players."

On Yoane Wissa missing that early chance, he adds: "Looking back with hindsight, you'd say that's potentially a big turning point. We wanted to get the crowd fully into the match. Manchester City want to do the opposite by retaining the ball and calm the crowd down, also it's always that dynamic by the two teams. Yoane's a top player. He's still finding his very best level after a long time injured. Maybe in a couple more weeks that might've gone in.

"All I can look at is the effort levels of the players, and I think considering Saturday's efforts that we gave against Bournemouth, that was a great effort from the guys against the worst side that could expose that fatigue."

Former Liverpool midfielder Jamie Redknapp has hailed Manchester City forward Rayan Cherki as “the signing of the season” after the Frenchman scored a late second in City’s win over Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup.

City secured a 2-0 victory in the first leg of their semi-final with a professional performance at St James’ Park, with Antoine Semenyo having opened the scoring before Cherki added a second in the 98th minute.

The Frenchman only came on as a substitute in the 77th minute but still found time to produce a potentially pivotal moment in the tie, with his accomplished finish leaving Newcastle with a mountain to climb at the Etihad in a few weeks.

Here’s what Jamie Redknapp had to say on the VAR debacle:

"If the goal is given not one person will say it shouldn't have been allowed.

"However, whether we like it or not, by the letter of the law it is the right decision.

"But that is five minutes of my life I am not getting back. The process took too long."

Sky’s pundits were all critical of that VAR decision, with Micah Richards calling it “re-refereeing the game”.

“I understand the process but VAR wasn't brought in for this reason here,” said the former City defender.

“This is anti-goal which they said they weren't going to do, they said they weren't going to re-referee the game. This for me is re-refereeing the game.

“They are both going at it. It might be right, but I don't think we should be taking away goals for this. Why take five minutes?”

Dan Burn joked about the controversial VAR decision during Newcastle’s Carabao Cup semi-final clash with Manchester City which saw Antoine Semenyo’s second goal ruled out for offside.

Semenyo met a corner from Tijjani Reijnders and directed his shot wide of goalkeeper Nick Pope, defender Malick Thiaw and striker Erling Haaland in a moment which City thought had doubled their lead in the league cup tie.

However, VAR intervened before play resumed and took five-and-a-half minutes to decide that Erling Haaland was in an offside position and interfering with play.

Dan Burn is understandably disappointed on Sky.

"We had some really good chances. Wissa and Bruno. There were opportunities,” he explains.

“That second goal was a killer. We know what we have to do - there will be belief we can get a result,” he adds.