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Liverpool boss Arne Slot was gracious in defeat as Newcastle United ended their 70-year trophy drought.
Arne Slot gave credit to Newcastle United after they beat his Liverpool side to lift the Carabao Cup.
Dan Burn put the Magpies in front on the brink of half-time when he headed home Kieran Trippier’s corner before Alexander Isak doubled the advantage shortly after the break.
Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back for the Reds in stoppage time but it was too little, too late as Newcastle ended their 70-year domestic trophy drought.
With Liverpool set to win the Premier League title - sitting 12 points clear at the top - Slot’s side missed out on the opportunity to do a league and cup double. But the Dutchman was very gracious in defeat, setting aside praise for Newcastle.
Slot admitted Burn’s goal was something he’d ‘never seen’ before and believes the Blyth-born defender is one of few players capable of doing it.
Arne Slot praises Newcastle United and Dan Burn
“Again, credit to Newcastle,” the Dutchman. “But I can explain. We play zonal so we have five players zonally close to our goal, so if the ball falls there it is always one of the five stronger players that are going to attack that ball. And we have three players that man-mark and Macca is one of them.
“Normally a player like Dan Burn or another one runs to the zone because normally… I think he’s an exception to that 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.
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“That is part of logic, that they either have to go far away from our zone, which 99 out of 100 times that will never lead to a goal, or they have to arrive in our zone and then it’s an equal battle, if you want to call it like this.
“So credit to him, I think he’s one of the few players that can score a goal from that distance with his head.”
Arne Slot disagrees Liverpool were outplayed
Although Slot admitted Newcastle deserved to win, the former Feyenoord boss refuted suggestions his players were outplayed.
He said: “We were outplayed in their style, yeah, that’s true. That is what you can call outplayed. Yeah, they won more duels than us. Is that what you mean? Is that outworking? Or is that one of their biggest qualities to play so much [with] aerial duels and to win these physique duels?
“Outplayed for me is if you don’t touch the ball and they play through you every single time we tried to press them, every time you’re too late. That is for me outplayed.
“But I agree with you if you say that they deserved to win because the game went in the way they wanted it to go. Yes, they deserved to win, but it wasn’t like we were only running after them. We had to defend a lot of long balls [and] second balls and that’s their strength.
“It’s 70 years since they last won a trophy maybe, but that’s for the fans. Players have 15 years to play football and they want to win every single trophy they are competing for. That’s also what we want.
“But it was a game that went the way they wanted it to go. And they got just before half-time some extra energy with the goal, which they probably deserved after the first 45 minutes because they were threatening us more than we were threatening them.
“I don’t think there was more hunger for them; the game went the way they wanted it to go and they are stronger in that part of football than us and that’s why they beat us.”