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Benitez Pleased With Wolves Win
Written by Newcastle Utd
Rafa Benitez hailed the reaction of his side as they beat Wolves in the EFL Cup on Tuesday night
By Dan King - Newcastle United Managing Editor
Rafa Benitez believes Tuesday night's EFL Cup win over Wolves showed that lessons were learnt from last weekend's defeat to the same opponents.
Walter Zenga's side ran out 2-0 victors against a below-par United on Saturday, but the tables were turned on Tyneside four days later when Benitez's side progressed to the last 16 of the cup.
And, although both managers made eight changes to their respective starting XIs in midweek, Benitez was pleased with the way his side responded to their league loss.
Asked by nufcTV if he felt his side had taken anything on board from the previous match, the United boss replied: "Yeah, I think so. We analysed (Saturday's) game and we were prepared for this approach.
"Afterwards, they changed and played with two big lads up front, but still we managed to make some changes so I was really pleased with the reaction of the team.
"I think it was important to show that we're good enough to win these kind of games, and we did it.
"We changed players and still the team did a good job so I was really pleased; we go through, we played quite well and we scored great goals."
Matt Ritchie opened the scoring in the 29th minute and Yoan Gouffran's stunning volley two minutes later doubled Newcastle's advantage.
And although Karl Darlow was called into action on a couple of occasions after that, United were good value for their victory on a night when Daryl Murphy and Achraf Lazaar made their first appearances in black and white and DeAndre Yedlin was handed a first start for the Club.
Benitez added: "To start the game well is always really important for the confidence; for some players, it was their debut so to have everyone involved and doing well in the end was a key part of their success.
"I think the fans enjoyed the night, especially the two goals. The goals were great. It's important to go through but scoring these kind of goals is even better for everyone in the stadium.
"Winning gives you more confidence, so hopefully we will have high confidence for the game against Aston Villa and do well."