Manchester City took a huge step towards Wembley on Tuesday but Pep Guardiola left Newcastle enraged about the unpredictability and unreliability of VAR.
City have control of their Carabao Cup semi-final, having won the first leg at St James’ Park 2-0 thanks to goals from new signing Antoine Semenyo and, deep into added time, Rayan Cherki. Turning the situation around, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe admitted, will be his ‘biggest challenge’.
Guardiola was thrilled with City’s performance but he couldn’t contain his emotions after a preposterous 5min 30s second stoppage that eventually ended with Semenyo having a goal disallowed; Erling Haaland was deemed to be offside.
Even Howe recognised that the delay was ‘too long’ but Guardiola went further and, having kept his counsel when City were beaten 2-1 at this stadium in November – a game in which a number of decisions when against his team – the Catalan couldn’t hold back.
When asked whether Semenyo should have doubled City’s lead, Guardiola said: ‘It’s a good question. I would like to know why VAR in 60 minutes in the Premier League game at Newcastle, when we lost 2-1, it was an insane penalty on (Fabian) Schar for (Phil) Foden an not even a consideration.
‘After 20 minutes there was an incredible foul on Jeremy Doku. Today four people were not able to decide but the second goal that Newcastle scored (in November) was perfect. I’m not suspicious of that in 10 years, I didn’t say anything when we lost here.
Pep Guardiola let loose on VAR after his Manchester City side were denied a goal against Newcastle in their Carabao Cup win
Antoine Semenyo thought he had scored a second goal, only for Erling Haaland to be ruled offside after a six-minute check
‘I didn’t say anything in the FA Cup Final (when Crystal Palace keeper Dean Henderson was not sent-off for handling outside the box). I didn’t say anything after (no) red card. OK, it’s fine. But the fact that we don’t say it. I’m pretty sure Howard Webb is going to come in tomorrow.’
Guardiola continued: ‘The margin was so small, the frame touched the ball to score a second goal, that was tight too. They won deservedly the Premier League game but why did it intervene in those two moments and today it was more than six minutes. They will call me and explain it to me.’
He eventually calmed down and was keen to talk up the contributions of Semenyo, who was able to play having previously appeared for Bournemouth in this competition, and Bernardo Silva, who was impeccable from first to last and assisted the new signing’s goal.
‘The second half from Semenyo was much, much better,’ said Guardiola. ‘But Bernardo? You cannot imagine what a player Bernardo Silva is. He will be missed. He will hopefully stay for centuries but that guy is special, he knows what it is to be a competitor. Everyone was excellent.’
Howe insisted he was ‘not bitter’ about Semenyo being eligible to play – in 2023, Martin Dubravka couldn’t play in goal for Newcastle at Wembley, having played for Manchester United earlier in the campaign – but he recognised the scale of the task ahead of his team.
‘I think we have left ourselves with a mountain to climb,’ said Howe. ‘I thought it was a tough defeat on us tonight because I thought the lads really did give everything, and I thought we had the chances to make that scoreline very different if we could have got that first goal.
‘There were chances, there were moments, and I thought we defended pretty well for the majority of the game. I’m really disappointed to lose 2-0 – I think 1-0 would obviously have had a very different feel about it. But we needed to defend better in that last moment of the game.’
