Alnwick Town to AC Milan – Langley hails Newcastle United’s progression after Sela Cup win | OneFootball

Newcastle United manager Becky Langley hailed the team’s huge progression after their 4-3 penalty shootout victory over AC Milan in the Women’s Sela Cup at St. James’ Park yesterday.

The Magpies battled out a thrilling 2-2 draw with the Italian giants in normal time before winning the resulting penalty shootout 4-3. The victory saw Newcastle United win the first-ever Women’s Sela Cup despite having gone into the game as underdogs.

When reflecting on the win in the post-match press conference, Newcastle United manager Langley said that she was pleased with how her side dug deep to grind out a result.

“I’m absolutely delighted first and foremost,” Langley said. “It was a very hard contest against a very good AC Milan side.

“We spent a lot of time without the ball and we really had to grind it out, that second half especially.

“We want to try out different things in our pre-season. It’s only our second game of pre-season, so we wanted to have a little look at a different shape and some players in different areas of the pitch.

“There were some really good performances. Overall, I’m really happy that we’ve ground out the result. It shows that the players have got that hunger and resilience that we’ve had in the previous two seasons to make sure we win games. Yes, it’s early days in pre-season but we are playing to win.”

Newcastle United tested themselves against Barclays Women’s Super League opposition in the form of Manchester United in last season’s Adobe Women’s FA Cup, however, Langley felt that AC Milan were even tougher opponents.

She said “Arguably, that’s the best team that we’ve ever played against. We knew that Manchester United would be tough last season but I’d argue that was even tougher. We spent more time without the ball today than we did in that Manchester United fixture.

“When you bring a new set of players together, it feels like a completely new team but we’ve been really careful to make sure that our values and the hard work from the last few seasons continue into this season.

“When we recruited new players, we made sure that we added the right people to come to Newcastle, we added the right characters; players who want to play for the badge, players who know what the city is about and who want to embody the city and it’s fans on the pitch.

“It has been a really enjoyable experience gelling the team together. We’ve got some really talented and experienced players coming in but we’ve also got some really talented girls who have been here the last few seasons that have done so much to help the club get to the position that we’re in. It’s a massive team effort.”

Newcastle United’s first St. James’ Park appearance was against Alnwick Town in May 2022. Langley hailed the club’s journey in getting to the point where they can defeat AC Milan in the main stadium.

She said “I E-mailed some of the staff earlier and said we’ve come from the first time we played here which was Alnwick Town Women to now playing an AC Milan team that have played in the Champions League. It just shows huge progression.

“It’s a really exciting time but we have just got to keep levelling up every season. We’re doing that by bringing in good players to help us on that journey.”

Newcastle United kick-off the Barclays Women’s Championship season with a fixture at London City Lionesses on Sunday 8 September 2024.