CARABAO CUP FINAL - NEWCASTLE 2-1 LIVERPOOL - MATCH REPORT: SEE IT TO BELIEVE

Generational win to truly get a new era started.

Newcastle United ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy, defeating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to win the Carabao Cup final.

Read that again.

Newcastle United ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy, defeating Liverpool 2-1 at Wembley to win the Carabao Cup final.

How does that feel?

And because you cannot write a better story, goals from Dan Burn and Alexander Isak were the ones securing the victory, giving Eddie Howe’s team their first major silverware since the 1955 FA Cup.

Liverpool entered the match as favorites, but Newcastle started with intensity, pressing high and dictating the early tempo, putting the Reds’ backs against a wall they’d never find a way to clear.

Sandro Tonali sent an early warning shot past the post, while Newcastle’s midfield trio of Tonali, Joelinton, and Bruno Guimarães controlled the first half.

Liverpool struggled to create, managing only one shot and two touches in Newcastle’s box before halftime. Just imagine!

The breakthrough came in stoppage time. Kieran Trippier delivered a corner to the back post, where Burn, unmarked by the much smaller Alexis Mac Allister, powered a header across goal and past Caoimhin Kelleher.

The Newcastle end of Wembley erupted as Burn, a boyhood fan of the club and legitimate Magpie, celebrated a goal that put Newcastle on the verge of history.

Seven minutes into the second half, Isak doubled Newcastle’s lead.

After having a close-range finish ruled out for offside moments earlier, the Swedish striker capitalized on Jacob Murphy’s header across goal, sweeping his shot into the bottom left corner.

Newcastle were in control, while Liverpool, still dealing with the fatigue of their midweek Champions League elimination at the hands of PSG—who Newcastle trounced not long ago—struggled to respond.

Substitute Curtis Jones forced Nick Pope into a sharp save just before the hour mark, but Newcastle continued to look the more dangerous side and, hey, it’s not that Pope didn’t deserve his own moment to laugh at the Scousers.

Arne Slot adjusted Liverpool’s shape late on, pushing more attackers forward, yet Newcastle’s defensive organization held firm.

Deep into stoppage time, Federico Chiesa broke through and slid a finish past Pope. Initially flagged offside, VAR confirmed the goal, setting up a tense final minute.

But Newcastle held out, sealing a victory that ended decades of near misses and disappointments and also that, hopefully, kickstart an era of true and absolute dominance.

After the match, Howe praised his team’s effort and all of the now-legendary Geordie boys.

“I’m so pleased for the players, for the supporters, for everyone connected with the club,” Howe said. “It’s been a long time coming, but tonight we showed what this team is capable of.”

Newcastle will return to Premier League action on April 2 against Brentford, now as Carabao Cup champions, and with sculptors taking Howe’s measures for the inevitable statue that will soon grace the new Newcastle stadium.

Howay!

- Chapulana

MOST CHANGES CREATED | PREMIER LEAGUE 2023-24

PICKING 2023 WINNERS: MBAPPÉ, HAALAND AND LEWIS DUNK?

You know Erling Haaland will feature in this best of 2023 recap, but for what? Michael Regan/Getty Images

Everybody loves a good, completely arbitrary cut-off point, right? They can be useless, but sometimes they can, quite usefully, twist the lens through which we view something ever so slightly, just enough to reveal a new perspective. And so what better time to do that than the end of the calendar year?

While typically we constrain ourselves to the 38-game season model spanning across two calendar years, what if we take a different view? Rather than looking at this season and last season as two separate entities, what if we just let them bleed together and become one for the calendar year?

We know who won everything last season and who scored all the goals. We know who's winning this season and scoring all the goals. But who won the most and who scored all the goals in 2023?

Let's take a look at the defining players and teams of the past calendar year.

CARABAO CUP OFFERS RAY OF HOPE FOR POCHETTINO AND CHELSEA

Chelsea manager Mauricio Pochettino celebrates with the penalty shootout hero of the night, goalkeeper Djordje Petrovic. (Photo by Robin Jones/Getty Images)

The celebrations revealed more than Chelsea's performance did. For almost all of Tuesday night's Carabao Cup quarterfinal, the Blues were a familiar sight: errant at the back, ponderous in possession and largely toothless in attack.

Trailing to Callum Wilson's 16th-minute strike -- a product of some calamitous defending -- Chelsea were drifting out of a winnable competition and staring down the barrel of spending £1 billion in 18 months and only having the FA Cup left to play for.

Enter Kieran Trippier. The 33-year-old has been a hugely reliable performer for Newcastle and England but he is in wretched form and in the space of a few minutes, he gifted Mykhailo Mudryk his stoppage-time equaliser and then missed in the penalty shootout as this 1-1 draw ended in a 4-2 win which takes Chelsea through to the semifinals.

Pochettino greeted the equaliser with raucous celebrations on the touchline perhaps only surpassed by the moment Matt Ritchie saw his spot-kick saved by Djordje Petrovic to send the home side into the last four. Bear hugs and screams of "vamos" followed as Chelsea's players embarked on what has become something of a customary lap of appreciation but never with this vigour, Pochettino departing early while shaking his arms to Gala's "Freed From Desire."

CHANCES CREATED | PREMIER LEAGUE | 2023/24