Eddie Howe and Arne Slot
Newcastle United and Liverpool will go head-to-head in the Carabao Cup final
Newcastle United will be determined to end their silverware drought with a victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup on Sunday afternoon (4:30pm).
The sides will go head-to-head at Wembley with Newcastle installed as underdogs after Liverpool lifted the trophy last season. They are having a sensational campaign under their new new head coach Arne Slot.
Newcastle on the hand, last won a major trophy with the unexpected Fairs' Cup in 1969. Sunday's match will mark their sixth final since they last won one against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup.
Speaking ahead of the final, Eddie Howe and his team are determined to end the trophy drought. "It's a difficult one because I think a lot's made of that, of course I understand why," he said.
"But I think it's a real motivation for us to try and break that long time and that long wait that everyone's feeling. It should be inspiring for us - not a negative. I understand it will be a negative or a perceived negative for a lot of people, but we're trying to look at it the other way round.
"It's a chance to make history for us as a team - that's very rare in football. You get very few opportunities to do that, a chance to be remembered positively. I want the players to look at it that way, as I said earlier, to attack the game and to get a good representation of us."
Sven Botman, Lewis Hall and**Jamaal Lascelles** will all miss out whilst Anthony Gordon continues his suspension. The red card received in the FA Cup defeat to Brighton & Hove Albion meant a three-game domestic ban for Gordon - the last of which will be Sunday's showdown at Wembley.
"There are always decisions to make. That will be no different for this game. We don't have a huge pool of players - we have a very tight squad," Howe added.
"We are in a good place after the win on Monday night and that was a big thing for us. The players are in a good place. Everyone wants to play in these bigger games."
Liverpool will also be without a number of key players when they travel to Wembley on Sunday. Trent Alexander-Arnold will be a significant miss for the Reds after he sustained an ankle injury during the Champions League defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in mid-week.
"Maybe Curtis can play [right-back], Trent is not available, he won't be there," Slot told reporters on Friday. "He is still to be assessed but we do expect him back before the season's end. [Ibrahima] Konate, yesterday was recovery, I expect him to train with us today."
Elsewhere, Conor Bradley, Joe Gomez and Tyler Morton remain unavailable while Ibrahima Konate is expected to have a late fitness test and could feature.
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