Newcastle United Qualify For Europa League After Andy Carroll Goal

By virtue of old boy Andy Carroll's late goal that sent Liverpool into the finals of the FA Cup yesterday, Newcastle United are all but confirmed for a return to European football for the first time in six years. Liverpool's 2-1 win in the Merseyside FA Cup semi-final means that no matter who is victorious today between Tottenham Hotspur and Chelsea, unless either Newcastle or Chelsea suffer an astronomical run of results in the league run in, means United will at least take the extra Europa League spot that has appeared in the league thanks to the two FA Cup finalists having already qualified for the competition. That's as long as Everton don't reach either club to finish in sixth placed position but with only five games to go and Newcastle 12 points of Everton and Chelsea 10 points ahead, it would take an absolute disaster for either club to finish lower than sixth. Attention for Newcastle United now turns to potential Champions League qualification. United are level on points with Spurs and are fighting for fourth place and must now look to take six points from the games against Stoke (at home next week) and Wigan (away, the week after) to at least keep them in the race for the visit to Stamford Bridge on Wednesday 2nd May. Of course even if Newcastle United do the almost unthinkable and do finish fourth, they will still rely on other results going there way. They are reliant on Chelsea NOT winning the Champions League this season as if they did that and finished lower than fourth, they would take the extra Champions League place and the side that finished fourth would instead qualify for the Europa League.