New boy Semenyo scores again as City put one foot in Carabao Cup final 

Antoine Semenyo turned out for Bournemouth in an earlier round but was cleared to play for his latest employers due to a tweak in the registration laws which Eddie Howe had every right to rue.

Manchester City's Antoine Semenyo celebrates after scoring his side's opening goal. Pic: AP Photo/Dave Thompson

Premier League: Newcastle 0 Manchester City 2 

EDDIE Howe had reflected that in an 'ideal world' the rule which allowed Antoine Semenyo to play at St James' Park would have been delayed by a year.

The Newcastle manager's reasoning proved prophetic as Manchester City's latest acquisition maintained the 26-year-old's 100 per cent scoring record for his new team to put them in pole position to return to Wembley.

Without a soul-sapping intervention from VAR it would have been three goals in two games since a £65m move from Bournemouth - who the Ghana striker turned out for in an earlier round but was cleared to play for his latest employers due to a tweak in the registration laws which Howe had every right to rue.

Newcastle, just about, retain a grip on the Carabao Cup but after inflicting a first home defeat on them in 14 games, Pep Guardiola will be confident of wrestling it from their grasp when the second act plays out in Manchester next month.

It's still only half way but after Rayan Cherki's dagger-blow second in stoppage-time, the smart money will be on City to progress from the last four for the seventh successive time in this competition as they brought some calm and order to a stadium that has of late grown used to footballing chaos.

City have not lost a league Cup semi-final for 14 years, and would have been in an even stronger position had it not been for VAR official Stuart Attwell, who may well have been Newcastle's man-of-the-match for his tooth comb-like intervention midway through the second-half to ensure the holders face only a two-goal deficit going into the second leg.

After 13 goals in the previous two games here in the past week, perhaps St James' Park was due something a little less white-knuckle as both sides played to a degree with the handbrake on due to the two-legged nature of this tie.

Clear-cut chances were at a premium, especially before the break as City largely dominated but the hosts carved out the better of the few opportunities carved out.

Howe made seven changes for Newcastle's fourth consecutive home game in the last 10 days and the much-altered hosts should have been celebrating a goal inside the opening five minutes.

A flowing four-man move from halfway saw the ball ferried out to Jacob Murphy on the right, with Newcastle clearly seeing Nathan Ake as City's defensive Achilles Heel at left-back.

The winger's inviting low diagonal centre across the City box found Yoane Wissa with time and space to take a touch - only to blaze his shot over left-footed from a less than a dozen yards in a crucial miss in terms of the momentum an early goal would have provided for the hosts.

It was Murphy's only significant contribution as the 30-year-old was forced off in first-half-stoppage time with a hamstring issue, to be replaced by Harvey Barnes.

James Trafford's every touch was roundly booed for the England Under-21 goalkeeper's decision to snub a potential move to Tyneside in favour of a return to City in the summer. It proved to be more of a distraction than anything the hosts could throw at the 23-year-old on the pitch in a first-half that will not live long in the memory.

Trafford's opposite number Nick Pope wasn't seriously tested until early in the second-half when the Newcastle keeper had to dive smartly to his left to prevent Anthony Gordon from inadvertently deflecting the ball into his own net.

Newcastle replied immediately, Trafford doing well to stretch every sinew in tipping Wissa's looping header onto the bar. A well-struck Bruno Guimaraes follow-up beat the England Under-21 international, who was saved by his right-hand post.

A high-octane start to the second period provided more chances in a matter of minutes than the entire first-half and City were the beneficiaries as Semenyo gave them a 53rd minute lead.

Jeremyn Doku had been largely well shackled by stand-in full-back Lewis Miley, but the Belgian finally found space down the left to send in a cross which was flicked on by Bernardo Silva to take out three defenders and leave Semenyo with a simple close-range tap-in.

It should have been two nine minutes later when Semenyo, again showing his predatory skills inside the six-yard box, deftly deflected the ball home.

There followed a forensic five-minute VAR check to eventually identify that Erling Haaland, probably by the width of the material on his sock, was offside and interfering with play as he wrestled with Malick Thiaw when the ball hit the net.

It may have been the correct decision, but it was another of those dis-spiritingly drawn-out video interventions that sucked a little bit more life out of the game, regardless of who you may support.

There was no such VAR escape when, deep into the nine minutes of stoppage-time, substitute Cherki swept home City's second from Rayan Ait-Nouri's cut-back to leave Newcastle with a mountain to climb.

Newcastle (4-3-3): Pope 6; Miley 6, Thiaw 6, Botman 7, Hall 7; Ramsey 6 (Tonali 69, 6), Guimaraes 6 (Trippier 87, 6), Joelinton 6; J Murphy 6 (Barnes 45, 6), Wissa 3 (Woltemade 69, 6), Gordon 6. Booked: Joelinton, Guimaraes, Tripper, Tonali.

Manchester City (4-1-4-1): Trafford 7; Matheus Nunes 6 (Lewis 62, 6) Khusanov 7, Alleyne 7, Ake 5 (Ait-Nouri 88, 5); O'Reilly 7 (Rodri 62, 6); Semenyo 8, Bernardo Silva 7, Foden 6 (Reijnders 62, 6), Doku 6 (Cherki 77, 6); Haaland 6. Booked: O'Reilly, Matheus Nunes, Lewis, Bernardo Silva.

Referee: Chris Kavanagh.