Newcastle United through to Carabao Cup Semi-Final thanks to on-fire Sandro Two-nali

There couldn't have been a more perfect response to the absolutely insufferable media stories surrounding Sandro Tonali than the one the Italian delivered tonight.

Newcastle United brushed aside Brentford at St James' Park in the Carabao Cup semi-final, beating the Bees 3-1.

The Magpies were on it from minute one and barely gave the visitors a look-in. It took just nine minutes for Newcastle to take the lead and they did so in style thanks to a fizzing effort hit first-time from distance by Sandro Tonali giving him his first goal since his debut against Aston Villa in 2023.

Not content with that, though, Tonali bagged his and Newcastle's second just before half-time, this time hitting a side-foot volley into the net via a slight deflection off the back of Nathan Collins.

Fabian Schar added his fourth goal of the season

Fabian Schar rounded off the scoring for the home side on 69 minutes tapping in from close range after an unselfish cut-back from Bruno Guimaraes.

With the game pretty much wrapped up, Eddie Howe rung the changes with one eye on Ipswich at the weekend and that seemed to take all of the momentum out of the game which in turn led to an injury-time consolation goal for Brentford via Yoane Wissa.

A consolation was all that was ever going to be given just how in control Newcastle were throughout the game. Brentford already struggle away from home but they lost one player in the warm-up and then lost Ethan Pinnock early in the first half too, so their entire game plan was disrupted and Newcastle capitalised.

The draw for the semi-final will take place tomorrow night

Newcastle were forced into a change at half-time after Joelinton took an elbow and then a boot to the face in the first half which resulted in him having his face stapled up. He saw out the rest of the first-period but was replaced by Joe Willock in the break.

Jacob Murphy had another decent game but couldn't add to his recent tally of goal contributions. He did, however, keep up his impressive record of hitting the post. The man does more to woodwork than Mr Geppetto.

Will Osula was given a few minutes to show us what he can do and almost added a fourth for Newcastle right after Wissa's consolation, but was muscled off the ball just as he was about to pull the trigger. Other than that effort, he showed some great strength with his hold-up play. We really want to see more of him.

Newcastle go into the bowl along with Arsenal and Liverpool for the semi-final draw which will take place tomorrow night after Tottenham vs Manchester United. Clearly there are no easy ties available, so a home draw would be ideal and hopefully we can build up a decent cushion going into the second leg.