Penalty Drama after Six-Goal Thriller! - Newcastle United v Man City Highlights - Subway WLC 25-26

Good afternoon and welcome to League Cup action as Newcastle United hosts Manchester City at the Gateshead International Stadium. There are 19 league places separating these two sides who are just one division apart. City four times winners of the competition. They beat Everton in their first group stage game. Girls need to be careful. Murphy's lurking. Shot from distance. Oh, that is absolutely spectacular. You may not see a better goal than that in this round of the competition. Lois Joe with an absolute rocket into the top corner. He simply cannot stop those. Last chance of the half you'd think with Bennet. Towards the area. Gets past Stokes. Still going. Squares it across and there is the equaliser. On the brink of halftime and City get the goal that their pressure has duly deserved. Combs with the finish. A brilliant winding run forward from Bennet. Finds Lazle. Feeds it back in towards the Japanese winger. Towards the penalty area. City looks to charge. Could be a decent ball in. Here's Hasegawa. That's just what the doctor ordered for Manchester City at the start of the second half. Yui Hasegawa in an advanced position in the penalty area and absolutely smashes it into the top corner. And whatever Andre Jägle said in the changing rooms at halftime, it has worked. Manning with the challenge, but can't win it offshore. He does well to win a repeat corner kick for the Sky Blues. Will be another wicked in swinger for Newcastle to deal with. This one's high towards the far post. Keeper punches. Not the best. It's a real mess. It's gone in and Claudia Moon will not want to see that goal back. She came to collect the corner. Opted to punch. Got it badly wrong and in the end has more or less punched it into the back of her own net. Prior played it back towards Keating who was stood with her heels almost on her own goal line. Newcastle rekindle the possession. Cross comes in. Oh, it's found the back of the net and maybe a lifeline for Newcastle United. A real pile driver from Freighter Gregory. Here's Knobbs. Options left and right. Switching it out towards Murphy. Good touch from her. Takes it past one. Looks to hit one from distance. Oh, it's found the back of the net. And out of nowhere, Newcastle United rescue a point here. And what a finish that is from distance. History does suggest that the team who takes the first penalty might have the slight psychological advantage as Hale steps up and makes no mistake. Newcastle strike first in the penalty shootout. Moon makes herself look big. It is Kasperi and it is 1-1 in the shootout. Today, Manchester City play in now for Newcastle. Steps up and you do not stop those. Right into the top corner. Keating may have got a fingertip on it. Has a chance from the spot to square things up in the shootout. And she makes no mistake. Hits the roof of the net. A confident, assured finish. Hands on hips. Right footed. Never in any doubt. Waiting for Keating to show her arm. To pull them square once more in the shootout. And almost Moon gets a glove onto it. It just squeezes under the palm of the Newcastle United goalkeeper. Much to her despair. Whose late effort put Newcastle into the penalty shootout. And her latest effort also makes no mistake. Cool as you like. Strokes it into the bottom corner. Can she pull her side square once more? Newcastle piling on the pressure in the shootout. Greenwood hits it. Moon almost gets there again. It squeezes in by the post. Agony for Claudia Moon. This afternoon as Knob steps up. Right footed. Almost catches Keating out. But again maybe just waiting for the Manchester City goalkeeper to dive to her right. Puts it down the middle. But Miedema. Can she do it with the pressure on? Or will Claudia Moon be the hero? It is Miedema. Never in doubt from the Dutch international. Cool as you like. Strokes it home. To reduce the deficit before Newcastle equalised in the shootout. Off the crossbar. And into the back of the net. And she wheels away in celebration like she meant it to go in. Looking to be the hero. Wahabi steps up. Left footed. Moon almost gets there. Off the post and in. And Manchester City stay in the shootout through the skin of their teeth. Strokes against Keating. Strokes just taking the time of the run up. Slots it to the keeper's left and Keating makes a save. And gives her side the upper hand for the first time in the penalty shootout. Laura Blinkeld Brown. How are your nerves? Claudia Moon once more makes herself big on the goal line. Blinkeld Brown hits it and wins the shootout for Manchester City. What drama we've seen here at the Gateshead International Stadium. Muted celebrations from Manchester City after Blinkeld Brown fires it home. And what a game we've seen. Yeah, I think it was a lot of ups and downs. I think that the performance in general is not on the level that we want it to be. Like you're saying, one goal down, coming back, that's strong for us. But we are conceding three goals and also two goals in the last, I don't know, 10 minutes or what it was. And that is not okay. So then winning on penalties, of course, is also important to the strength of the team to be able to do that. But in general, there is too many things that I feel that this wasn't the best performance in total. So proud of the players. I thought their energy, work ethic, you know, was rewarded with the last goal and, you know, equalising against City. So yeah, it was an overall brilliant atmosphere, brilliant afternoon, and I'm sure the fans enjoyed that one. I think that's what the League Cup's about. You're going to come up against WSL opposition, and that's where we want to be. So we went toe to toe. We did what we could, came back, and yeah, I'm fortunate not to walk away with it. For us, the international break is coming at a good time. Bit of a reset. We're hitting form. And yeah, it's going to be a huge push for us coming into the second half of the season.