Rafa and the players got the job done tonight and won the game 2-0 and after we were 2-0 up with goals from Matt Ritchie and Yoan Gouffran Newcastle were able to control the game and it turned out to be a fairly easy win in the end.
Rafa seems to want a good cup run and with the big squad he has assembled we have enough players to field good team for two games a week and not impact the league and our major push to be promoted.
Rafa Benitez at the game congratulates Yoan Gouffran after scoring
This is what Rafa said after the game:
“The fans will want to hear that we will go and win the final, and it could be easy for me to say that.” “What I would say is that we want to be ambitious, and we want to go for every game and try to win.”
“If we cannot, we cannot, but we will try. We have the right players. We changed eight players today, but we could still compete. That is my idea – to make sure we can play a strong team that can compete against anyone.”
“If we go forward in the competition, we will challenge and we will try.” “If we cannot succeed it is maybe because we are not strong enough to go further, but we will try.”
“It is important for us, and for the players, to feel that there is a lot of competition. That is good for everyone. The players know they have to go on the pitch and do their best, and it doesn’t matter about the competition or the game.”
“That is a key factor if we want to be strong, and successfully manage the number of games we are going to play this year.”
“I was pleased with Gouff in pre-season.” “I was expecting some offers for him, but we had one and that was not good enough.”
“After that, I was expecting that another one would come, but we were watching him closely and he was training really well.”
Gouffran scored another stunning goal tonight.
Now let’s hope we get a good draw in the 4th round.
It was a good win to get us back on track – but now we have two massive games coming up against Aston Villa and Norwich.
And Norwich had an impressive win tonight beating Everton 2-0 at Goodison Park.
Comments welcome.
2 comments so far
Lindisfarne
Sep 20, 2016 at 11:25 PM
Comment #1The current footballing ethos does not seem to include a Shearer and Ferdinand strike partnership, essentially in order to ensure midfield rigidity. However I somewhat mourn the loss of a solid two banks of four quickly releasing the ball to the forwards to magically weave their way through to the oppositions goal. Hopefully scoring before being swamped by returning defenders/midfielders.
Vask
Sep 20, 2016 at 11:25 PM
Comment #234,735 for a third round coca cola cup tie. Good turn out!