History was made on Sunday 16th of March.

Newcastle United beat Liverpool to win the 2025 EFL Carabao Cup at Wembley Stadium. Prior to Sunday, Newcastle United had not won a domestic cup since 1955, thus ending seventy years of hurt for the club and fans alike. After suffering defeat at the hands of Manchester United in the 2023 final, the team promised fans that they would never feel this heartbreak again, and boy did they deliver on that promise.  

Liverpool went into this final as the favourites as they sat comfortably at the top of the Premier League. In their last two meetings Newcastle and Liverpool drew three all in November and then Newcastle lost to them two nil a mere two weeks prior to the final. Manager Eddie Howe has since revealed that they essentially sacrificed the previous game in order to hide their tactics, ready for the final. Anthony Gordon was serving a three-game suspension after receiving a red card in the FA Cup clash against Brighton and Hove Albion and therefore was unable to play. Lewis Hall and Sven Botman were also out of the game however due to injury, worrying fans as to who their respective substitutes would be.   

What an amazing week for Dan Burn as he not only scored a glorious header at 45 minutes, but he also received his first ever England National Team call up just days earlier alongside his fellow Geordies Anthony Gordon and Tino Livramento (and not forgetting Lewis Miley for the Under 19s team). Alexander Isak masterfully scored at 52 minutes, mere moments after his previous goal was ruled offside due to skipper Bruno Guimaraes’ position in the box. Joelinton played a key role in the teams midfield, ferociously roaring at the crowd after every successful challenge. Viewers saw more of Ant and Dec than they did Mohammed Salah as he seemingly took residence in Tino Livramento’s back pocket. It seems the ‘Egyptian King’ was no match for our ‘Geordie Prince’ as he created zero chances and took no shots on goal. Nick Pope proved the naysayers wrong as he had the game of his career, taking risks that inevitably paid off. Many fans wanted number two goalkeeper Martin Dubravka to take the number one spot this final after his outstanding performances during Pope’s injury.  

It’s fair to say Liverpool manager Arne Slot made some interesting tactical decisions throughout the game, beginning with his insistence that the 5’9 Alexis Mac Allister be the one to mark the giant 6’7 Dan Burn, leading to some rather interesting commentary from Gary Neville, questioning whether the appropriately nicknamed Big Dan Burn was going to eat him! These decisions continued as he made the interesting choice of substitution as, at two goals down, he decided to bring on Dawin Nunez, who had missed a penalty against PSG just five days earlier. Liverpool’s Federico Chiesa then managed to score a sneaky goal in extra time after a VAR discrepancy as to whether it was in fact offside, however, even with the ruling in Liverpool’s favour, it was ultimately too late to make any real change in the game.  

Liverpool have now lost out on three cups in the space of a month after losing to Plymouth Argyle in FA Cup and PSG in the Champions League, although, I doubt they’re dwelling too much on that since they have managed to win the Premier League before the end of the season. Eddie Howe is now the first English manager to win a cup since Harry Redknapp in 2008 and is being honoured with the Freedom of the City for his incredible work for the club (I personally think he deserves a knighthood, but I may be slightly biassed). Newcastle has since celebrated their enormous win on Saturday 29^th March with an open top bus parade through the city and a celebratory festival on the town mor. It’s safe to say that Newcastle United are on the up and we can certainly expect more silverware coming their way. 

UP THE TOON!  

Image credit: WikimediaCommons.