Marmoush brace fires Manchester City into Cup final
Manchester City will face Arsenal in next month's Carabao Cup final after easing to a 3-1 win over Newcastle United in the second leg of their semi-final, prevailing 5-1 on aggregate.
Omar Marmoush got an unorthodox brace inside the first 29 minutes at the Etihad Stadium before Tijjani Reijnders added a third goal to put City out of sight, with Anthony Elanga's solo strike in the second half proving a mere consolation.
After a 2-0 victory in the first leg at St James' Park and with one eye on Monday's Premier League clash with Liverpool, Pep Guardiola shuffled his pack for the game, with Erling Haaland among six players to drop out of the City starting line-up.
But City showed no signs of rust and took the lead in the seventh minute, albeit in fortuitous fashion as Dan Burn's challenge saw the ball deflect against Marmoush and loop over Aaron Ramsdale.
Joe Willock then saw an effort smothered by James Trafford, but City doubled their lead on the night just shy of the half-hour mark, with Marmoush on hand to nod over the line after Kieran Trippier sliced Antoine Semenyo's centre directly up in the air.
City had a third goal just three minutes later as Reijnders slotted home to cap a brisk counter-attack that he started with a driving run through Newcastle's half, and things got worse for the Magpies when Anthony Gordon went off injured late in the first half.
Eddie Howe withdrew more of his big names at half-time, with Yoane Wissa and Elanga among those brought on, and in between two big misses from the former, the latter cut inside and fired off the post to reduce the arrears.
Marmoush blazed over when presented with a chance for his hat-trick, while Ramsdale made a superb save to deny Haaland after he stepped off the bench.
