Newcastle Survives Millwall Challenge in Carabao Cup
Newcastle are into the Carabao Cup last 16, but they had to drag themselves there. This was no cruise for a Premier League side with serious ambitions; it was a scrap at The Den, settled late by Joe Willock and soaked in tension right until the final whistle.
Jaissle goes strong, but Newcastle stumble in attack
Marco Jaissle did not treat this third-round tie lightly. He named a strong XI, a side that on paper should have had enough to quieten Millwall early and control the night.
They controlled the ball. The rest was a struggle.
The 2025 winners saw plenty of possession but offered almost nothing of real incision for long stretches. The tempo stuttered, the final pass went missing, and the game drifted into exactly the kind of contest Millwall relish: tight, physical, awkward.
For an hour, Newcastle produced just a single shot on target. When they finally did test Filip Marschall, the Millwall goalkeeper rose to it, springing to his near post to beat away a vicious strike from Willock. It felt like a warning. It didn’t feel like a turning point. Not yet.
Millwall scent an upset
While Newcastle laboured, Millwall grew bolder.
The Championship side were never overawed, and as the second half wore on, belief spread through the stands and onto the pitch. The Lions began to sense that this might be one of those nights.
Their big moment arrived through substitute Tairyk Arconte. Capitalising on slack defending from Tino Livramento, he burst through on goal and drilled low, past the goalkeeper but not past the woodwork. The ball cannoned back off the post. The Den gasped. Newcastle survived.
That near miss jolted the visitors, but frustration still clung to them at the other end. On the stroke of half-time, they had already felt aggrieved when Fabian Schar appeared to have his shirt tugged by Caleb Taylor inside the box. Appeals went up. The referee waved them away. No penalty, no reprieve, and the sense grew that Newcastle would have to carve Millwall open the hard way.
Hall’s delivery, Willock’s moment
The pressure finally told.
With the clock ticking into the 81st minute and the prospect of a penalty shootout looming over the away end, Lewis Hall stepped up on the left. His cross was not floated hopefully; it was drilled, precise, fizzed into the danger area with purpose.
Willock reacted first. One sharp movement, one clean touch, and the ball was in the net.
Relief poured out of the travelling supporters, who had watched their side toil and strain for most of the evening. The goal broke Millwall’s resistance and, just as importantly, protected Jaissle’s unbeaten start to the campaign.
No late twist followed. Millwall pushed, but the chance Arconte smacked against the post remained their big moment. Newcastle, having finally found a way through, saw the game out with a professionalism that had been missing from much of their attacking play.
What comes next
The job is done, even if the performance raises questions about Newcastle’s cutting edge against stubborn opposition.
They move on to the last 16 of the Carabao Cup and now pivot back to the Premier League, where Leeds United await. Momentum is building in terms of results, if not yet in fluency.
Millwall, meanwhile, must park the disappointment of a near miss and return to the grind of the Championship. Blackburn Rovers come to The Den next, and if they can summon the same intensity they showed here, the cup exit may quickly feel like a platform rather than a setback.
