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Newcastle manager Eddie Howe 'very emotional' as he revels in 'magnificent' Carabao Cup victory over Liverpool in final
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Updated 16/03/2025 at 20:43 GMT
Newcastle manager Eddie Howe was "very emotional" after his side's 2-1 win over Liverpool in the League Cup final on Sunday at Wembley. Speaking after the victory, he praised his side for their efforts, and explained how they worked on their opening goal, scored by Dan Burn, for two weeks before the showpiece occasion in London. Striker Alexander Isak grabbed their second.
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Eddie Howe said he was "very, very emotional" after Newcastle’s 2-1 Carabao Cup final win over Liverpool at Wembley.
Newcastle earned their first trophy in more than five decades as Howe’s men put in one of their best performances of the season, against a side who look destined to win this season’s Premier League.
Goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak gave them a two-goal advantage, which was enough to give them glory despite Federico Chiesa’s late goal for Arne Slot’s men.
The majority of Newcastle fans will not have seen their club win a trophy in their lifetime, and famous fans such as Alan Shearer were seen overjoyed at Wembley after the win.
Howe conceded that he was also deeply affected by the day.
He told Sky Sports: "I am very, very emotional and have been all day, which is unlike me.
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"We knew what was at stake today for all of our fans, we wanted to do them proud and win the trophy.
"I am so, so pleased with the result and the performance - we deserved to win today.
"It was tough when Liverpool scored. I was thinking about extra time. We always make it difficult for ourselves. It was never going to be 2-0."
Howe added: "We were well aware of the history, and we wanted to do the club proud. We wanted to score, we wanted to perform and we wanted to win.
"We are breaking new ground. I thought we were magnificent today."
Howe revealed that the set-piece that gave Newcastle the lead had been integral to their preparation for the game.
"We worked consistently for two weeks on set plays just for this game and if you had seen us in practice you would have said we had no chance," he claimed.
"We couldn’t believe Dan Burn scored - he didn’t train like that! He was a colossus for us."
Slot: PSG defeat 'maybe did something to us'
Liverpool manager Arne Slot said in his post-match press conference that Newcastle had won by dominating with long balls.
The Dutchman denied that there was more desire from Howe's men, saying: "It wasn’t like we were only running after them, we had to defend a lot of long balls and second balls and that’s their strength.
"I don’t think there was more hunger from them. They are stronger in that part of football than us and that’s why they beat us."
He also suggested that defeat against Paris Saint-Germain last week may have affected the players, who have now been knocked out of two cup competitions in quick succession.
He added: "Were we on Tuesday mentally or physically tired? No. But this game [against Newcastle] had nothing to do with running.
"This game had only to do with duels and there was no intensity in terms of running at all. You can’t even judge if we were tired. We couldn’t press them. You can judge a team if they are tired if they press, but there was nothing to press as they played over our press. If they had a free-kick and a goal kick, every time they brought it to our last line which led to a lot of set-pieces.
"The game was slow and not intense. It’s difficult to judge if we were physically ready. And mentally, it is a difficult one. If you look at the result and performance, you might feel it [the PSG loss] maybe did something to us."
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