Manchester City were eliminated from the League Cup following their narrow 1-0 defeat to Newcastle United at St. James’ Park on Wednesday.

Alexander Isak scored the game-winning goal for second-string Newcastle, which came alive after halftime to beat a much-changed City team.

Last year’s final was won by Manchester United, and Newcastle made 10 changes from Sunday’s 8-0 win at Sheffield United. In the first half, the visitors barely gave the home team a chance to kick the ball.

But when Bruno Guimaraes and Anthony Gordon came on at halftime, the Magpies changed. Joelinton set up Isak to score after he did great work on the ball.

“Pre-game, the run last year was in our thoughts,” Howe told Sky Sports. “It was an inspiration to us and helped our season, albeit the final maybe affected our league results. We look back on it with real pride.

“We want to try and go one further if we can but there is a long way to go at this stage. We are still there fighting.”

Howe’s team was disciplined but didn’t do much when City had the ball. They were lucky to be tied after 45 minutes because Julian Alvarez missed two good chances.

Pep Guardiola made seven changes of his own, including giving young midfielder Oscar Bobb his first start. However, the familiar slow probing was still clear.

But the home team deserved to win because in the second half, they played with a lot of energy and effort and mostly against a City team that couldn’t do anything.

For Pep Guardiola’s team, it was only their second loss in their last 38 games in all competitions that happened in the first 90 minutes.

After losing three straight games, Newcastle has now won four in a row. Their reward for Wednesday’s win is a chance to play the team that beat them in the final last year.

The only bad thing for Newcastle was that Isak got hurt and had to leave the game after an hour. Paris Saint-Germain is coming to town on Wednesday in the Champions League, and Burnley is coming to town on Saturday in the league.

Even though there have been a lot of changes, the styles of these two teams and why they are both so well-known in the English game were clear in a fun game with two halves at St. James’ Park.

City tried to control the game and slowly break down their opponent. They did this well for the first 45 minutes, but didn’t make a big breakthrough.

Bobb moved around a lot and made some nice touches. Kalvin Phillips saw a lot of the ball and moved it around nicely in the Newcastle half, and Jack Grealish gave the home defence a lot to watch out for.

Alvarez had two chances to score. The first one was the best of the two, but Nick Pope saved it with his foot. If he had finished like he has all season, City could be looking at a fourth-round tie of their own.

But even though Newcastle has a dark side, they are a well-trained team when they don’t have the ball. They held strong until halftime and then turned on the afterburners in a great second half.

Lewis Hall and 17-year-old Lewis Miley were making their full debuts when Gordon and Guimaraes came in. This was the turning point, but the Magpies as a whole got better.

The lack of action was gone, and in its place was a sharp arrow of energy and determination that went straight through City’s defence.

“It was a game of two halves,” said Howe. “[The] first was tough and City played well. We didn’t but defended well as we didn’t have the ball.

“[In the] second half we were excellent in most aspects, defensively and offensively. We attacked well and probably deserved to win in the end.

“There were tactical changes [at half-time] but the biggest thing was in belief. This is not a reflection on the lads we took off but the lads we brought on made a big difference. With the ball we were a better team completely.”

Isak has been great in his second season in England, and he scored again at the back post after Joelinton made a strong run and sent a low ball into the box.

After that, they kept pressing, and even though Phil Foden, Matheus Nunes, and Jeremy Doku came on, they played the game so well that City couldn’t catch up.

Rico Lewis’s shot just missed the post, which was the closest the away team came to making it go to a penalty shootout.