Report and reaction: Newcastle 3 Brentford 1 | OneFootball

Brentford were knocked out of the Carabao Cup after a 3-1 defeat to Newcastle United at the quarter-final stage at St James' Park on Wednesday night.

A first-half brace from Sandro Tonali put Eddie Howe's side ahead, before Fabian Schär scored the third from close range with 20 minutes to play. Yoane Wissa scored a late consolation for the west Londoners, but it wasn't enough to prevent the cup exit.

Thomas Frank made five changes for the game on Tyneside: in were Ben Mee, Kristoffer Ajer, Vitaly Janelt, Fábio Carvalho and Kevin Schade, who replaced Sepp van den Berg (due to start the game but was replaced after picking up an injury in the warm-up) Mads Roerslev, Christian Nørgaard, Mikkel Damsgaard and Bryan Mbeumo.

Joelinton had the first real effort on goal inside five minutes when Bruno Guimarães found his compatriot, who span and fired a shot towards goal, which Nathan Collins blocked well.

But it was not long after that that Tonali's strike gave the hosts the lead. A run down the right from Tino Livramento was half-cleared by Collins this time, before the Italian midfielder fiercely struck it from the edge of the area and into the bottom-right corner.

Ethan Pinnock was another defensive casualty just 15 minutes into the game, as he came off with a knock and was replaced by Roerslev.

There were calls for a Bees penalty, when Yoane Wissa's initial effort was stopped by Martin Dúbravka in the Newcastle goal, before Wissa retrieved the ball and, after a neat touch away from the keeper, went down from the gloves of the Magpies man. Referee Sam Barrott didn't think there was enough contact and waved play on.

Tonali doubled his and Newcastle's tally just before half-time as an Anthony Gordon corner was floated into a dangerous area, and the midfielder charged in from the edge of the box, volleying past Mark Flekken, with the aid of a slight Collins deflection.

Jacob Murphy almost made it three in additional time of the opening period, when a clever move involving Tonali, Guimarães and Isak saw the ball fall to the winger, who rattled the near post from inside the area.

The first chance of the second half fell to Brentford. A long throw from Schade was flicked towards the back post, where Wissa met it with an overhead kick, which flew over the Newcastle crossbar.

The Magpies were pushing for a third and Gordon nearly found it on 58 minutes. A driving run into the box resulted in a curling effort towards the far post, which just lacked the required bend to sneak into the bottom corner.

Murphy was close just moments later, too - aiming at the other corner this time. He played a tidy one-two with Guimarães, who flicked it back into the path of the Englishman, bending it just wide.

Joe Willock was next to take aim, as Newcastle counter-attacked after a Brentford corner. Lewis Hall slid in his team-mate, but Flekken was equal to the attempt, which was driven straight at him.

A third goal arrived on 69 minutes, after a series of shots from the home side eventually saw the ball land at the feet of Harvey Barnes, who had an attempt of his own. Flekken parried it away well but Guimarães picked it up inside the six-yard box and, instead of shooting, slid a fantastic ball across the box to Schär, who bundled it across the line from point-blank range.

Barnes hit the post with 10 minutes left on the clock, as he struck an effort from outside the box, which rebounded back off the woodwork.

Mee had a good chance as the game came to a close, as Damsgaard's corner was floated towards the back post; the centre-back attacked it but it went just wide.

Wissa had the Bees' best opportunity of the night up to that moment, as Mbeumo played a lovely ball through the defence towards his team-mate but, one-on-one with Dúbravka, his shot went straight at the keeper.

Wissa grabbed a consolation minutes after his first effort, after some brilliant play from Damsgaard, who executed a nutmeg and sent the ball through to Mbeumo. The duo, who almost created a goal from the previous chance, teamed up again which, this time, resulted in the Bees finding the back of the net, as Mbeumo squared to Wissa inside the box and the latter finished from six yards out.

Other than an Ajer tackle which prevented William Osula from scoring inside the Bees penalty area, that was it at St James' Park, as Newcastle progressed to the Carabao Cup semi-final at the expense of Brentford.

Newcastle: Dúbravka; Livramento, Schär, Burn, Hall (Trippier 77); Tonali, Guimarães, Joelinton (Willock 45); Murphy (Barnes 65), Isak (Osula 77), Gordon (Almirón 77)

Subs not used: Vlachodimos, Targett, Kelly, Miley

Brentford: Flekken; Collins, Mee, Pinnock (Roerslev 14); Ajer, Yarmoliuk, Janelt (Mbeumo 62), Carvalho (Damsgaard 62), Lewis-Potter (Meghoma 74); Wissa, Schade (Maghoma 74)

Subs not used: Valdimarsson, Konak, Trevitt, Eyestone

Attendance: 51,765

Frank: We need to do better defensively

Brentford head coach Thomas Frank bemoaned his side's defending in Wednesday night's 3-1 Carabao Cup defeat at Newcastle.

“On the day, we lost to a better team than us," said Frank.

"We didn’t defend well enough. That was the key thing.

“Overall, you can’t go to St James’ Park and concede the three goals we conceded.

"We need to do better. I will look into it, everyone needs to look into it, there’s no doubt about it."

We need to be nastier, admits Lewis-Potter

Keane Lewis-Potter discussed what went wrong for the Bees on Wedne, as they were knocked out of the Carabao Cup.

“We need to have a bit of nastiness about us," Lewis-Potter stated.

“We’re expecting to score two/three/four goals every game - we can’t do that. We can’t go into away games expecting to do that and win games, it’s not going to happen.”

Adding to that, the left-back added: “They score the first one - that’s going to happen in football - but we can’t let our heads drop.

“And we have to be more solid and aggressive from set-pieces, it’s too easy. It’s difficult right now.”