Rafa Benítez is finally happy. After his terrible last season, now he has reasons to smile. Newcastle United thrashed yesterday (6-0) Preston North End in the Last 16 Round in the League Cup or EFL Cup in England and Newcastle went through to the Quarter-Finals Round. Only Alan Pardew could qualify the Magpies to this round in the last 40 years.
Besides his success in the EFL Cup, Newcastle are currently top of the table in the Championship with 31 points in 14 games, 3 points ahead of Brighton, the second in the table. Newcastle have now a run of five straight wins in the Championship and look unstoppable.
It wasn’t an easy start for Rafa Benítez. The Magpies kept most of the players who couldn’t avoid the relegation last year, including Shelvey, Gouffran, Anita, Ayoze o Mitrovic. They even signed Premier League players like Dwight Gayle, who has scored 11 goals in 12 appearances in Championship.
Obviously, Newcastle have the strongest squad in the second division but this doesn’t mean success. Actually, they started really bad the season with two defeats against Fulham and Huddersfield Town. Now, the Magpies are back in track and it looks like they can achieve the goal of promotion easily.
Rafa Benítez can finally smile. Only one year ago he lived a nightmare. He was sacked in January from Real Madrid. In November his team was thrashed at home by big rivals Barcelona (0-4) and he could never get the control back. The players didn’t back him, so Florentino fired him and hired Zinedine Zidane. In the meantime, Benítez signed for Newcastle to avoid the relegation, but he couldn’t achieve the goal. Real Madrid, meanwhile, won the Champions League and fought until the last game for La Liga.
Here you can watch the big game Newcastle United v Preston North End:
Other press said Pardew was the only manager to get to quarter finals also, but it’s not true. Roeder, Robson, Dalglish Keegan all got to the same stage in the same competition. No further though :/