LONDON — It didn’t take long until the taste for silverware had grasped Eddie Howe. Barely an hour after lifting Newcastle’s first major trophy in over half a century, Howe, his hair soaked through with champagne, was already eyeing up further honors to follow his EFL Cup.
Newcastle were outstanding on their way to their first major honor since the 1969 Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, a 2-1 victory over Premier League leaders Liverpool barely reflecting their superiority at Wembley Stadium. Howe’s side succeeded where the Magpies’ last five cup finalists had failed, and their triumph will doubtless lead to many hours of revelry in the northeast.
Howe is determined to throw himself into those celebrations, but once the party is over, he is intent on using this trophy as a springboard to bigger prizes. Given the backing of Saudi Arabia’s sovereign wealth fund PIF and a squad that includes the likes of Bruno Guimaraes, Sandro Tonali and scorer of the second goal, Alexander Isak, there is reason to believe that Newcastle fans will be celebrating a fair few more honors between now and 2081.
“Hopefully with one can come more,” Howe said. “There’s no guarantee but it proves we can do it. I’ve never had any doubts about our ability to lift our game but you don’t get many shots at this.
“Today we had to try to take our opportunity. That’s where the players delivered under pressure, so impressively. They proved that we can mix our game against the very, very best. The challenge for us is to try to get there more often, lifting our game like we did today.”
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Howe and much of this side have experienced the sharp end of Newcastle’s trophy drought, reaching their first cup final in 24 years back in 2023 only to be beaten 2-0 by Manchester United, a game where they struggled to deal with the sense of occasion.
After what will have been a lifetime of waiting for many of their supporters, there is sure to be quite the party atmosphere on Tyneside tonight and surely a few bleary heads come Monday morning (assuming the partying has stopped by then). Those in Howe’s squad who were not called up for international duty are due to fly out to Dubai that same day for a warm-weather training camp but the coach wants an opportunity to celebrate with fans who will now idolize the man who ended the trophy drought.
“There has to be a big celebration,” he said. “I certainly will be encouraging it, which is very rare for me, usually I’m the other way. We have to celebrate, hopefully with our supporters, with everyone that’s waited so long. It is difficult as it’s international duty. Players will be going off here, there and everywhere.
“There won’t be long to spend together but hopefully it will be really enjoyable.”
Dan Burn proved to be the star of the show for Newcastle, the boy from nearby Blyth heading home the opener, a thundering header as halftime beckoned. It was quite the way to round off a week that saw him called up to the England squad for the first time too.
“I’ve had worse weeks,” he joked. “I don’t want to go to sleep because I feel like I’m dreaming and it’s all going to be a lie.”
Arne Slot, meanwhile, has not had a worse week since taking charge of Liverpool. Back-to-back defeats for the first time in his tenure have seen the Reds crash out of the Champions League at the round of 16 and miss out on silverware that would have seen them match Manchester United’s record haul of 20 English domestic cups. A Premier League title that seems a matter of when not if will doubtless be a salve but Slot admitted his side could not have expected more than they got at Wembley.
“This game went exactly the way they wanted it to be,” he said. “A fight, with a lot of duels. If we played 10 times through the air against them, they win it nine times because they are stronger than us.
“We were outplayed, in their style. That is true. That is what you can call outplayed, they won more duels than us. Outplayed for me is if you don’t touch the ball and they play through you every time you press them. That for me is outplayed. But I agree if you say they deserved to win because the game went the way they wanted it to go.”
