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Newcastle United are off to Wembley to face Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final on Sunday (4:30pm kick-off).
The Magpies will be looking to end a 70-year trophy drought by beating the Premier League leaders and Carabao Cup holders. Eddie Howe’s side reached the Carabao Cup final back in 2023 but were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United.
Sunday will be Newcastle’s third League Cup final as they look to win the competition for the first time. They have beaten three of the Premier League’s current top four on their way to the final in Nottingham Forest, Chelsea and Arsenal and will need to do a clean sweep by beating runaway leaders Liverpool, who are fresh from a brutal Champions League exit to Paris Saint-Germain on penalties.
Newcastle return to London for the second time this week having beaten West Ham United 1-0 on Monday night. Bruno Guimaraes scored the only goal of the game to give Newcastle a big three points heading into Sunday’s final.
Newcastle United set to travel to Wembley in style
Newcastle will arrive at Wembley on Sunday in their new luxury team coach.
Newcastle’s coach travel partners Tynedale have a new Van Hool TDX21 Altano Coach with a bespoke Newcastle United interior fitted by AD Coach Systems for the first-team squad.
The coach is valued in excess of £500,000 and features Newcastle lighting, logos, multiple LCD screens and a kitchen fitted with combi ovens, a fridge-freezer and coffee machines.
Footage of the new coach was shared by Newcastle supporter Peter Clennell last month. Watch below.
After staying next to Wembley Stadium on the eve of the 2023 Carabao Cup final, Newcastle have opted to stay on the outskirts of London with Eddie Howe and his squad preparing differently this time around.
Newcastle United focused on the final
Rather than a full media day like last time, Newcastle held a standard Friday 9am press conference with Eddie Howe ahead of Sunday’s final.
During the press conference, Howe summed up his feelings compared to 2023.
“Feeling very good thanks,” he said. “I think it does feel different, I think the whole thing this season has felt different in the sense that I think we've just gone about our business in a really calm, controlled way, professional way, we've had a really tough run of fixtures in the Carabao Cup.
“I think to attack those games in the way that we did and of course, you're in the midst of a busy campaign, Premier League, FA Cup, we've sort of just gone from round to round and we've ended up in the final but there's been a lot less emotion, there's been a lot less noise I think outside of in here and hopefully that helps us in our performance in the game.
“You never quite know what effect that will have but we've been very much focused on our build-up and preparation and getting the game plan right, so I'd say that's the biggest difference.
“We've not gone back to that [2023 final] game at all really, I think it's pretty much irrelevant. The occasion, yes, but the game itself and the feelings and emotions the players don't need reminding of how that feeling of losing, how painful that is after a game like that and how long that lives with you and it's still with us to a degree.
“We've just focused on this game and where we are, we're a different team, we've got different players, we're very much positive, we're going in with a positive mindset, we're going to try and be very much ourselves and give a good expression of what we do.”