Anthony Gordon scored Newcastle’s second in the second-leg win over Arsenal (Image: Sky Sports)
said it is important for to ‘stay humble’ after beating 4-0 on aggregate in the semi-finals.
His comments come days after the Gunners’ fiery clash with , in which Myles Lewis-Skelly performed ‘s celebration in a 5-1 win. Back in September, when and City drew at the Etihad, Haaland told to ‘stay humble’ after the final whistle.
Much was made of that remark after the north Londoners got their revenge at the Emirates. And fans are now wondering whether Gordon used the same wording intentionally after humbled to book their spot in March’s final.
“It is important for us to stay humble now,” the England winger told . “[The final] will be a big occasion but it’s so far away. It feels amazing. A proper team performance and we got the win.
“Our fans are never in question, they make it so difficult for the opposition and we did it the right way. We had a game plan we thought would work. Everyone knows we press.”
went into Wednesday night’s showdown with a two-goal cushion thanks to their win at the Emirates last month. But Gordon and his team-mates knew an early goal could create a huge momentum shift.
Anthony Gordon tormented William Saliba along with Alexander Isak (Image: Getty)
The Magpies had less possession but they were far more potent than the visitors, and Alexander Isak had the ball in the net early on, before VAR called a marginal offside. The Swede then played a major role in the opener, with his strike cannoning off the post for Jacob Murphy to turn in the rebound.
Gordon put the tie beyond doubt seven minutes into the second half when David Raya’s clumsy pass was pounced on by Fabian Schar. And there was no coming back from there.
boss Eddie Howe, who did a superb tactical job to thwart the Gunners, told : “We do tweak things depending on the opposition. We felt we needed more height in the team, we wanted solidity at the back and we had to change in order to win the game.
“The players followed the instruction to the letter, they deserve the credit. The intention was to be aggressive and sometimes when you do that it doesn’t always work. Today it did. We had to retreat at times but we were always in the game.”