Rafa Benitez reveals the lessons learnt from Newcastle's EFL Cup defeat

Rafa Benitez feels Newcastle United will learn from their penalty shootout defeat to Hull City.
Rafa Benitez has words with Jonjo ShelveyRafa Benitez has words with Jonjo Shelvey
Rafa Benitez has words with Jonjo Shelvey

Benitez’s side were knocked out of the EFL Cup by the Premier League club at the KCOM Stadium last night.

Robert Snodgrass seized on a mistake from Matz Sels to cancel out Mohamed Diame’s extra-time opener to send the game to penalties.

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Of Newcastle’s four penalty-takers, only Christian Atsu was able to beat Hull goalkeeper Eldin Jakupovic.

Benitez was frustrated his team hadn’t been able to convert any of their first-half chances – or make the most of their man advantage after the 89th minute dismissal of Dieumerci Mbokani.

“We can learn a lot for the future from a game like this,” said Benitez, who revealed after the game that he hadn’t practiced penalties with his team before the quarter-final tie.

“We played against a Premier League team, away from home, and the team was playing so well. I was pleased, but I was saying ‘we have done nothing – we have to score and we have to win’.

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“With one less player for them, we had so much control ... it was just a matter of time before we scored.

“But once we did that, we made a mistake and we allowed them to score. There were a lot of things we can learn, but also a lot of positives because, for me, the team did quite well.”

United created a series of first-half chances.

Benitez added: “The way that we played, I think that we deserved to score goals in the first half and deserved to score goals in extra-time.

“But when we scored the goal, we didn’t manage the situation properly.

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“That is something you can get with experience, and hopefully a match like this will give us that experience and in the future we will do a bit better when we have this kind of advantage. We created so many chances.”

Meanwhile, Hull manager Mike Phelan said: “I thought Newcastle played decent football, they moved the ball around well and looked in reasonable control but I felt were also good value for money.”

Mbokani was sent off after clashing with United captain Jamaal Lascelles, who was booked.

Phelan said: “I spoke to the referee afterwards because I wanted to make it pretty clear when I was going to say.

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“I’m disappointed on both parts. I’m disappointed that he retaliated, which gave the referee no option but to make a decision. But I was also disappointed from the point of view I don’t think he got too much protection all game to be fair.

“In a moment of madness, he’s reacted and paid the price.”