By CNN
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Manchester City suffered a first defeat of the season against Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup as star striker Erling Haaland was left on the bench.
Alexander Isak’s goal gave Newcastle, last year’s beaten finalist, a 1-0 victory at St James’ Park after a much-improved second-half performance.
City dominated possession in the early stages of the match as Julián Álvarez had chances to give the visiting side the lead.
Newcastle looked sharper in attack having brought on Anthony Gordon and Bruno Guimarães at the break, though it was Isak who got the game’s decisive goal, finishing off Joelinton’s surging run and precise cross into the box.
City manager Pep Guardiola, who handed starts to 18-year-old Rico Lewis and 20-year-old Oscar Bobb, decided not to introduce prolific goalscorer Haaland – the 23-year-old Norwegian has scored eight goals in six Premier League games this season – as the visitors pushed for an equalizer, instead bringing on Jeremy Doku, Matheus Nunes, and Phil Foden.
It remained 1-0, however, condemning Guardiola to a third consecutive early exit in the Carabao Cup after defeats against Southampton last year and West Ham the year before.
After winning the Premier League, Champions League, and FA Cup last year, Wednesday’s loss means that Man City will be unable to go one better and win an unprecedented quadruple this season.
“We have a lot of games ahead of us,” Guardiola told reporters after the match.
“There are guys who have played a lot of minutes … I decided with this lineup, I always have done that in the Carabao Cup since day one when I arrived. In the Carabao Cup I always play the players who never regularly play.”
Prior to the game, Guardiola had lamented not being able to travel by plane between Manchester and Newcastle. City now has three more away games: against Wolves on Saturday, RB Leipzig in the Champions League on October 4, then Arsenal on October 8.
“We don’t have planes to travel back, we take a bus, it’s two or three hours later [that we return],” he said prior to facing Newcastle. “We arrive here so, so late … and Friday we have to travel to Wolves.”
For Newcastle, the victory was the team’s third in four games and sets up a fourth-round clash against Manchester United on October 30 – a repeat of last year’s Carabao Cup final.
“I’m delighted with the players, delighted with the efforts that they gave,” manager Eddie Howe told reporters. “It was a very difficult game for us in that first half, I thought they played very well … The second half was a totally different performance.”
Newcastle next faces Burnley in the Premier League on Saturday.
