(CNN) Manchester United lifted their first trophy since 2017 with a 2-0 win over Newcastle United to lift the Carabao Cup at Wembley Stadium on Sunday.
Casemiro broke the deadlock minutes after the half-hour and headed home from a Luke Shaw free-kick.
Five minutes later, the lead was doubled after Marcus Rashford appeared to have continued his electric form as his deflected shot from Lorius Karius narrowly avoided and flew into the Newcastle goal despite the German’s desperate fingertips – it was later ruled a Sven Botman own goal .
The trophy cements an excellent turnaround under Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag, who transformed the club from perennial underachiever to trophy winner in just over 10 months.
“It’s an incredible feeling, we’ve been looking for this moment, we, the fans, the club, we’re finally getting our trophy, we deserve it,” Manchester United midfielder Bruno Fernandes told Sky Sports shortly after the final whistle.
“It was a great time. The first trophy of the season but we want more. It’s not enough for this club, we want more and we need more because our standards deserve more.”
Turn around
For both teams, for different reasons, it was a long-awaited final.
The club have not won a trophy for Manchester United since 2017; a disastrous expanse for a club of its size.
In the black and white of Newcastle it’s even longer to wait after they haven’t won any major trophies in 54 years.
It is also the first final for the club since its controversial takeover by the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF) in 2021.
The PIF – which owns an 80% stake in the club as part of a three-party consortium – is a sovereign wealth fund chaired by Mohammed bin Salman, the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, the man named in a US intelligence report responsible for authorizing the operation that led to the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
With thousands of fans traveling to London for the Newcastle final, Wembley’s atmosphere had a real cup final feel to it.
And to the delight of Manchester United fans, their local hero and the man in the team’s form, Rashford, has been declared fit to start despite a recent injury concern. Newcastle were without their own star player in goalkeeper Nick Pope, who had been shown a red card in his previous game meaning he was suspended.
In the opening minutes and in a sizzling atmosphere, there was very little between the two teams, with Newcastle’s Allan Saint-Maximin coming closest after some quick footwork that was typical of his style.
When it looked like Newcastle were going to get going, Casemiro headed it past Karius from an outside free-kick.
Casemiro celebrates Manchester United’s first goal in the Carabao Cup final.
The Brazil midfielder was signed by manager Ten Hag in a £60m ($73m) deal from Real Madrid in the summer and his influence at the heart of the team is indicative of Manchester United’s rise since Ten Hag’s arrival at the club.
Minutes later, things went from bad to worse for Newcastle as a neat link-up game between Rashford and Wout Weghorst saw the England star play into the opposition’s box. Despite being able to parry a left-foot shot under pressure from Botman, Rashford’s shot appeared to have gone wide, meaning the goal was credited to the Dutch defender.
After half-time Newcastle increased their pressure on David de Gea’s goal, with Saint-Maximin and newly introduced Alexander Isak doing their best to create chances.
The last two minutes were filled with set pieces, substitutions and breakaway chances – with Manchester United actually being the most likely to score.
In the dying seconds, Portugal international Fernandes had a great opportunity to end a memorable afternoon when the result seemed set, only for Karius to come up with a smart stop.
Rashford celebrates after Manchester United’s second goal in the Carabao Cup final.
In the end, Manchester United was able to tick off the rest of the clock and end their six-year wait for the trophy — the club’s longest wait for a major trophy since 1983 – and potentially the start of a new era at the club.
“It’s a mix of all the emotions. It’s huge for us to be involved in games like this. We missed that as a club,” Rashford told Sky Sports afterwards.
“The fact that we came all the way and won it is a tremendous feeling. Hopefully now it pushes us to move on. It’s huge for us as a club and as individuals and it’s part of our history. We want to expand on that.”
He added: “We want to be involved in a lot of games and that means we have to stay in the competitions. If we want to win things we have to keep pushing.”
It was even more of a disappointment for Newcastle at Wembley as they have now lost every one of their last nine games at the stadium, a streak that began in the 1974 FA Cup Final and continued the longest losing streak by a club side in the venue’s history.