Patrick Vieira has admitted that Newcastle United's substitutes helped make the difference in the Magpies' penalty shootout win against his Crystal Palace side - even if Bruno Guimaraes and Sven Botman both missed.
Eddie Howe, ideally, did not want to have to use those key players he left out of the starting line-up on Wednesday night. However, with the third-round tie still goalless at St James' Park, the Newcastle boss turned to his bench midway through the second half.
Kieran Trippier, Botman and Bruno generated one of the loudest roars of the night when they entered the field in the 66th minute and the players fed off that energy. Suddenly, Newcastle started to play with more intensity and the noise levels went up further when Miguel Almiron came on a little later.
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Howe also threw on Joe Willock late on in search of a winner, but the game was ultimately settled by penalties following a goalless 90 minutes. We all know what happened next; Nick Pope saved Luka Milivojevic, Jean-Philippe Mateta and Malcolm Ebiowei's spot-kicks and Chris Wood, Trippier and Joelinton all scored for the hosts to send them through to the last 16.
Although Botman and Bruno missed their penalties in the 3-2 shootout win, Vieira felt the difference in benches proved decisive. The Crystal Palace boss named a host of youngsters among his substitutes, who had shirt numbers ranging from 41 to 78, whereas Newcastle were able to call upon players who have commanded around £126.5m in transfer fees in recent years.
"After 90 minutes, it's 0-0 and you go into a penalty shootout," Vieira told reporters. "The difference, of course, is the experience, the calmness of the players. It's about making those five changes that can have an impact on the penalties as well."
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