Manchester United beat Newcastle to win Carabao Cup
Manchester United beat Newcastle 2-0 at Wembley Stadium on Sunday evening to claim the Carabao Cup title, their first silverware in 6 years.
The Red Devils were far from their best, but two first-half goals, one from Casemiro and the other from a deflected Rashford effort, gave manager Eric ten Hag his first trophy after just nine months in charge of the club.
Newcastle started brightly
Newcastle started brightly, with Allan Saint-Maximin and Miguel Almiron causing trouble for the United wingbacks, but Eddie Howe’s side failed to thread the ball to carve clear-cut openings in the final third.
Saint-Maximin did test David De Gea following Sean Longstaff’s brilliant crossfield pass, but the French winger could only drill his shot straight at the United keeper.
Quick double puts united in control
A minute later, Casemiro opened the scoring with a fine header following Luke Shaw’s delightful free-kick from the left wing.
United had to wait for the goal to be given as VAR intervened to rule out any potential offside in the buildup to the goal.
If that was entirely against the run of play, it was 2-0 just six minutes later when Marcus Rashford’s effort deflected off Botman to loop past Loris Karius in the Magpies’ goal.
The Newcastle stopper made a brilliant save deep into stoppage time just before the break from Antony’s 25-yard piledriver.
Newcastle were by far the better of the two sides as they had the lion’s share of possession in the second half, almost 80%, till the 65-minute mark.
However, the Magpies never really threatened De Gea, thanks to Raphael Varane and Lisandro Martinez, who were again excellent in central defense.
Casemiro had a brilliant game in the central defensive midfield spot, showing why he is one of the best in the position.
Manchester United could have made it 3-0 in the 74th minute, but Karius denied Rashford with a fine save by diving low onto his right.
The German also kept out Bruno Fernandes with yet another terrific save, his best of the match when he denied the Portuguese midfielder just before the final whistle.
The result meant that Newcastle’s dismal run at Wembley continues, as they have now lost all their nine matches in the iconic stadium.
They will, however, look to quickly bounce back in the Premier League as they chase a Champions League berth, knowing they are four points off Tottenham in fourth with two games in hand.
Photo credit: IMAGO / Paul Marriott