Newcastle 2-0 Leicester: Three Things We Learned

Newcastle United beat Leicester City 2-0 last night to book their place in the semi-finals of this season’s League Cup.

We’re getting down to the nitty gritty of this year’s competition and, based on how it’s playing out, we’re in for one hell of a climax. On Tuesday, Eddie Howe’s Newcastle side made sure that they’d remain part of the equation with a strong 2-0 victory over Leicester.

Today, we’ll pick out a few of our big takeaways from what went down on Tyneside.

Dominant Magpies

From the very first minute, Newcastle were playing at a completely different level. They outplayed Leicester, outfought them, and looked like a bonafide top four force. Sure, they had moments of adversity to overcome, but their style of play makes for quite the visual. Eddie Howe should be proud of what he’s created and the scary part about it is that the only way appears to be up.

Leicester’s troubles

Leicester City’s cup pedigree didn’t do them any favours here. Brendan Rodgers just could not get his team going and although they weren’t overwhelmed in the possession sense, they never seemed to be the ones on the front foot aside from a few bright spells. The Foxes are in serious trouble and the gaffer may need to start sweating about his job if he can’t turn things around results wise in the weeks ahead.

Newcastle = the favourites?

Newcastle United have not won a trophy in over 50 years. Now, they are just one two-legged tie away from reaching Wembley. They’ll be joined by Manchester United in the semis and tonight, two out of Southampton, Manchester City, Nottingham Forest and Wolves will join them. Given their upward trajectory and everything we’ve seen in months gone by, we’d actually argue their momentum would make them the favourites to go all the way.