Eddie Howe believes the mood in the Newcastle United camp ahead of Sunday's EFL Cup final versus Liverpool "feels different" than it did before their last final loss in 2023. (More Football News)
Newcastle are bidding to win their first major domestic t✅rophy since 1955ꩲ, when they beat Manchester City 3-1 in the FA Cup showpiece match.
Since then, the Magpies have lost five domestic cup finals (three in the EFL Cup and two iꦉn the FA Cup), with only Chelsea enduring a longer losing run in finals (three EFL Cup finals and three FA Cup finals since 2019).
Howe previously guided Newcastle to the final of this competition in 2023, but they were beaten 2-0 by Manchester United with Casemiro and Marcus Rashford scoring.
Bu😼t he believes they are approaching this match with more confidence, having eliminated four Premier League clubs in Nottingham Forest, Chelsea, Brentford and Arsenal.
"I am feeling very good. I think it do❀es feel different," Howe told reporters as he reflected on the 2023 final.
"I think the whole thing this𒁃 season has felt different, in the sense that I think we have gone about our business in a really calm, controlled way.
"We have had a really tough run of fixtures in the cup. I think to attack those games in the wa🍸y that we did and in the midst of a busy campaign with the Premier League, FA Cup... we have gone from round to round. Now we hav𝔍e ended up in the final.
"There has been a lot less emotion, a lot less noise outside here. Hopefully, that helps uဣs with the performance in the game."
Should Newcastle triumph on🌳 Sunday, Howe will become the first English manager to win a major trophy with a Premier League team since 2008, when Harry Redknapp oversaw Portsmouth's FA Cup victory.
The last Englishman to lift the EFL Cup as a manager was Steve McClꦦaren, who did so with Middlesbrough in 2004.
Howe has won 12 of his 16 EFL Cup 🍌matches with🌄 Newcastle (75%), the best win ratio of any manager to take charge of more than one game in the competition for the Magpies.
Indeed, the only Newcastle manager with more wins in the EFL Cup is Kevin 🌌Keegan (13 in 21 games).
Midfielder Bruno Guimaraes echoed Howe's thought♚s as he said: "I feel we have more confidence. Because we have made a final before, we know have more experience.
🎶"We have changed some players, but the base is still ther🐈e. We are in our best moment.
"Hopefully we canꦕ go there and play our best football because on our best day, I thi💃nk we are really a great team.
"It is a good opportunity. We feel the same as them, we just want to make the fans happy. ♚We are going to do our best to get this trophy back to the city."
