Howe: Cherki's goal 'not fatal' blow to Newcastle's EFL Cup hopes

Eddie Howe described Rayan Cherki's late goal for Manchester City as a "body blow" to Newcastle United but says it is "not fatal at the moment".

EFL Cup holders Newcastle have work to do in the second leg of their semi-final tie with City, having lost 2-0 at the Etihad Stadium on Tuesday, with Cherki adding the visitors' second goal in the eighth minute of stoppage time.

Antoine Semenyo, who only joined City from Bournemouth last week, had opened the scoring and had a second goal controversially chalked off after a lengthy VAR check for a subjective offside decision against Erling Haaland.

With the second leg coming away from home, the second goal means Newcastle face a much bigger test, but Howe remains optimistic.

"It's a body blow [conceding last minute], but not fatal at the moment," Howe told Sky Sports. "We're still in there fighting.

"I think maybe a bit of naivety with a minute to go on the clock, that we're still trying to chase a goal. In that moment, we needed to defend after we got our structure wrong from that position, and we got punished.

"I think the lads gave everything under difficult circumstances after the extra time on Saturday [in the FA Cup penalty shoot-out win over Bournemouth], and there was a bit of fatigue in our performance, but I can't fault the players."

Newcastle had their chances at St. James' Park, though, having 10 shots to City's 11, though they only managed three on target, and hit the woodwork twice.

Only Crystal Palace (20) have struck the goal frame more times among Premier League clubs in all competitions this season than Newcastle (19).

Yoane Wissa also missed a glorious chance just five minutes into the game while in a one-on-one situation with James Trafford, and Howe acknowledged that momentum could have shifted if it had hit the back of the net.

"Looking back with hindsight, you'd say that's potentially a big turning point," he added.

"We wanted to get the crowd fully into the match. Manchester City want to do the opposite by retaining the ball and calm the crowd down. Also, it's always that dynamic by the two teams.

"Yoane's a top player. He's still finding his very best level after a long time injured. Maybe in a couple more weeks, that might've gone in.

"All I can look at is the effort levels of the players, and I think considering Saturday's efforts that we gave against Bournemouth, that was a great effort from the guys against the worst side that could expose that fatigue."