Arne Slot could not believe what Newcastle United did v Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final
Liverpool head coach Arne Slot gave credit to Newcastle United following their 2-1 Carabao Cup win over his side at Wembley Stadium.
Dan Burn opened the scoring for Newcastle in the first half before Alexander Isak made it 2-0 after the restart. Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back for Liverpool in stoppage time but it was too little too late as The Magpies ended a 70-year wait for a domestic trophy.
It was a first chance for a major trophy for Slot at Liverpool after Tuesday night’s Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain. The Reds are still 12 points clear at the top of the Premier League table and are on course for the league title but it was Newcastle who picked up the first domestic honour of the season in England this time around.
After praising Newcastle for the win, Slot admitted Burn’s opening goal on the stroke of half-time was something he’d ‘never seen’ before. Burn found the bottom left corner of the goal with a powerful header from Kieran Trippier’s corner to give Newcastle the lead and end a 25-year wait for a Wembley goal.
Arne Slot reacts to Newcastle United win v Liverpool
Slot said: “Credit to Newcastle but I can explain [the first goal], we play zonal so we have five players zonally close to our goal so if the ball falls there, there are three that attack it and we have three players who man mark and Macca [Alexis Mac Allister] is one but if a player like Dan Burn runs into the zone the five are there.
“I have never seen a player like Dan Burn head from there. So they either have to head far from our zone or go into the zone.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn runs to the zone because normally, and I think he is an exception because I have never seen in my life, a player from that far away heading a ball with so much force into the far corner. That is part of logic that either they have to go far away from our zone which 99 out of a 100 times will never lead to a goal or they have to arrive in our zone and then it's an equal level, if you call if like this.
“Credit to him, he is one of the few players who can score a goal from that distance with his head.”
Liverpool went into the game looking to retain the Carabao Cup having won the competition last year. But Slot was well aware of the history behind Newcastle’s wait for trophy success.
“It is 70 years since they last won a trophy but that is for the fans,” he added. “The players have 15 years to play football and they want to win every single trophy they play for and that is what we also want.
“They got some extra energy with the goal which they probably deserved so I don’t think there was more hunger for them. The game went the way they wanted it to.
“Disappointing result, disappointing performance, completely different to how I felt after PSG game, losing twice in a row is something we do after the first game but also something to do with coming into the latter stages of the tournament.
“Two [defeats] v difficult teams but different styles. It was a tough week but also a week where we extended our lead to 12 points from 10 but the last two were definitely not what we wanted.
“We were outplayed in their style, that is true. They won more duels than us. They deserved to win but it wasn’t like we were only running after them.”