Eddie Howe, Newcastle United's manager, spoke out after his team lost away to Manchester City, exiting the Carabao Cup semi-finals.
Eddie Howe, manager of the "Magpies" Newcastle United, said he was extremely disappointed after the team lost 1-3 away to the "Sky Blues" Manchester City in the second leg of the Carabao Cup semi-finals. With a 1-5 aggregate defeat over two legs, the Magpies' journey ended at the semi-final stage. Howe viewed conceding three quick goals as the turning point of the game.
In that match, Newcastle conceded three goals within the first half hour before finally scoring only once, resulting in a painful elimination from the tournament.
Howe said, "We really needed the first goal, and once Manchester City scored, you knew our task became even harder."
"I think we played poorly in the first half hour. We lost too many individual battles."
"If you add up all our chances over the two matches, you'll see we missed a lot of opportunities, which severely affected us."
"I felt very frustrated with our first-half performance because I believe we pride ourselves on being a disciplined team and tactically prepared to handle any problems the opponent creates. But in the first half, I think we didn't perform well enough in any area, and our one-on-one duels were poor."
"That caused us major problems, and I think we defended very poorly."