The words spoken by Sky Sports co-commentator Gary Neville when Newcastle United took the lead in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final are likely to become part of football folklore, as the Magpies ended their long wait for a trophy.
Although Newcastle saw less of the ball against defending champions Liverpool at Wembley, they dominated the match, creating far more chances than their illustrious opponents.
The breakthrough came in a brief but decisive period either side of half-time. Dan Burn, a boyhood Newcastle fan who had been released by the club at age 11 but returned at 29 after a career spent mainly in the Championship and League One, headed the Magpies into the lead just before the break. Seven minutes after the restart, Alexander Isak, a player Liverpool had identified as a potential upgrade on Darwin Nunez, doubled Newcastle’s advantage.
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Federico Chiesa’s stoppage-time strike, which underwent a lengthy and tense VAR check, set up a dramatic finale, sending Newcastle fans’ nerves into overdrive. However, the Magpies held firm and secured the victory.
Liverpool, having been knocked out of the Champions League just days earlier by Paris Saint-Germain, could not respond. This marks the first real crisis for Arne Slot since replacing Jurgen Klopp last May, though in the wider context, his team still hold a 12-point lead at the top of the Premier League with fewer than ten games remaining.
Newcastle’s victory ends a 56-year wait for a major trophy, with their last silverware coming in 1969 when they won the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the predecessor of the modern-day UEFA Cup/Europa League. Their last major domestic title came even earlier, in 1955, when club legend Jackie Milburn was in the final years of his career.
The Magpies have come agonizingly close to ending their trophy drought on several occasions, losing FA Cup finals in 1974, 1998, and 1999, League Cup finals in 1976 and 2023, and finishing second in the Premier League in 1996 and 1997.
However, Eddie Howe, who was disappointed to lose to Manchester United in the final two years ago, has succeeded where the likes of Kevin Keegan, Kenny Dalglish, and the late Sir Bobby Robson all failed.
