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Danny Welbeck came off the bench to fire Brighton into the FA Cup quarter-finals at Newcastle as Anthony Gordon’s Carabao Cup final dream was shattered by a late red card.
Welbeck, who scored the winner in the Premier League game at St James’ Park in October, struck in extra-time to win it 2-1 on an afternoon when both sides finished with 10 men.
Gordon was sent off for violent conduct with six minutes of a chaotic tie remaining – Tariq Lamptey later suffered the same fate after collecting a second yellow card – and faces a three-match ban which will cost him his place in the team for the clash with Liverpool at Wembley on 16 March.
Alexander Isak’s 22nd-minute penalty had given the hosts – who were without full-back Lewis Hall because of an ankle injury which will require a visit to a specialist – a lead which was cancelled out before half-time by former Magpie Yankuba Minteh, and an at times scruffy game remained in the balance until Welbeck’s intervention.
Isak had seen a third-minute header from a tight angle blocked by Adam Webster as both sides started with real intent.
Joelinton, back after a five-game absence, almost played his side into trouble with a blind pass to Kieran Trippier which was picked off by Kaoru Mitoma, but Carlos Baleba’s shot was blocked and the Magpies broke to set up Isak to curl a tame 16th-minute effort into the arms of goalkeeper Bart Verbruggen.
However, he was far more clinical from the penalty spot with 22 minutes gone, after Minteh – who left the Magpies for the south coast last summer – had felled Tino Livramento with a clumsy challenge. The leading goalscorer thumped the resulting spot-kick high into the top corner to open the scoring.
Verbruggen claimed Gordon’s 28th-minute attempt after Isak and Joelinton had combined on halfway but he was relieved to see Isak’s emphatic 32nd-minute finish ruled out for offside after Harvey Barnes had played him in.
Brighton were back in it a minute before half-time when the Magpies allowed Minteh to touch Lamptey’s throw-in to Joao Pedro and then run on to his return pass before stabbing the ball past the advancing Martin Dubravka, with the help of a sizeable deflection off the covering Trippier.
Dubravka saved from Pedro after Livramento and Dan Burn had dallied and Mitoma blazed high and wide from the resulting corner at the start of the second half, and the early introduction of Bruno Guimaraes, Joe Willock and Jacob Murphy did little to improve the hosts’ flow.
They were fortune to escape unpunished when Mitoma turned Pervis Estupinan’s 74th-minute cross across goal and substitute Diego Gomez curled over two minutes later, and substitute Brajan Gruda was similarly wasteful 11 minutes from time.
Newcastle’s afternoon took a turn for the worse with six minutes remaining when referee Anthony Taylor sent off Gordon for thrusting a hand into defender Jan Paul van Hecke’s face as the pair tussled for the ball, and Lamptey followed him down the tunnel in stoppage time for a second bookable offence, a foul on Murphy.
Fabian Schar thought he had won it in normal time when he met Guimaraes’ delivery with a firm volley only for a VAR check to rule he was offside, and although Dubravka made a stunning stoppage time save to keep out Gomez’s piledriver, former Sunderland loanee Welbeck struck from fellow substitute Solly March’s through-ball to win it in extra-time.
“It’s great to get the winning goal,” the match-winner told ITV. “It was a solid team performance – there was a lot going on in that game today. Lots of ups and downs, but we stuck with it. I’m so proud of the lads.
“Newcastle can always put you under pressure. They are very dangerous, but we stuck to our guns and we put in a great shift.”
PA