Newcastle United will not play in any European football competitions next season despite finishing the Premier League in seventh after Manchester United’s shock FA Cup final win over Manchester City.
Although Eddie Howe’s side had a strong finish to the season with a 5-1 win over Sheffield United, a 4-1 win over Burnley and a 4-2 win over Brentford, a 3-2 loss to Erik ten Hag’s side in the penultimate game of their league campaign has meant they were unable to secure sixth and therefore European qualification.
The Red Devils, who finished eighth, had to win the final in order to get themselves into the Europa League for next season but it would be at the expense of the Magpies, with Chelsea dropping into Newcastle’s spot in the Europa Conference League. Man City entered the final at Wembley as huge favourites but it was Man United who got in front first.
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A mistake by Josko Gvardiol saw his attempted header back towards goalkeeper Stefan Ortega but a miscommunication meant the ball flew over the shot-stopper’s head, allowing Alejandro Garnacho to slip in behind and put the ball into an empty net to give them the lead.
The Argentinian was once again involved in their second goal, as he took down a long pass from Marcus Rashford before passing it off to Bruno Fernandes who managed to find Mainoo with a beautiful no-look pass in open space, allowing the youngster to guide it into the bottom corner to double their lead just before halftime.
Despite several changes from Pep Guardiola, City failed to find an impact on the match. Premier League Golden Boot winner Erling Haaland continued his run without a goal at Wembley Stadium as his strike clattered the crossbar midway through the second half while Kyle Walker saw two efforts stopped by a brilliant Andre Onana and Jeremy Doku’s mazy runs failed to crack open a resilient Man United defence.
Eventually, the Belgian international managed to find the bottom-corner with a long-range effort, catching Onana off-guard, to give City a slither of hope with less than 10 minutes left. However, Ten Hag’s men held on to confirm their place in the Europa League next season, meaning Newcastle will miss out on European competition for the 2024/25 campaign.
It’ll be a hugely disappointing result for the Magpies, who saw their first involvement in the Champions League in over 20 years at the start of this campaign following their fourth-place finish in the 2022/23 season. With a slew of injuries across the last few months, Howe will now have to plan out a 2024/25 campaign with only domestic challenges in mind.