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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Sport
Jonathan Liew at Wembley

Relentless Newcastle can fashion new identity in their moment of history

Eddie Howe celebrates with the Carabao Cup, becoming the first English manager to win a trophy since 2008.
Eddie Howe celebrates with the Carabao Cup, becoming the first English manager to win a trophy since 2008. Photograph: Graham Hunt/ProSports/Shutterstock

The last few minutes are a kind of perfection. Liverpool score after a video assistant referee delay to make it 2-1. Newcastle restart, pump the ball into the Liverpool corner and from that moment a kind of elemental life force seems to surge through them. This is what you came for. This is how you wanted it, where you wanted it. Remember your training.

Can there be any more forlorn, godforsaken assignment than trying to wrestle Newcastle away from the corner flag in the dying seconds of a Wembley final? Curtis Jones tries and Harvey Elliott tries and Jarell Quansah tries, but these are players desperately unsuited to the task.

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