Newcastle’s Carabao Cup joy, Barcelona’s epic comeback, more

Before we head into a two-week international break filled with impactful games — FIFA World Cup qualifying, Concacaf Nations League finals and much more — let’s recap another tremendous weekend in Europe’s top soccer leagues, shall we? How about Newcastle United, whose 57-year wait for a trophy ended on Sunday with a 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final? Or Barcelona, who shrugged off what should have been a lethal 2-0 deficit at Atletico Madrid to score four times in the final 15 minutes, winning comfortably and taking charge of LaLiga’s title race?

Arsenal and Chelsea usually brings fire and brimstone-level drama, but instead we got a curiously dull 1-0 Gunners victory that really failed to meet the moment. Elsewhere, Inter Milan took a huge step forward in the Serie A title race with an impressive win over Atalanta that was compounded by Napoli‘s failure to beat Venezia, and we have plenty to talk about when it comes to Bayern Munich, Bayer Leverkusen, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United and much more. Here are some musings and reactions to the most memorable moments of the weekend.

Newcastle’s cup win for the ages

Even if you follow the Premier League, it’s hard to overstate the outsized significance of this Newcastle club. It’s not just the romantic notion of the giant stadium dominating the city, or the passionate, long-suffering base, or the fact that it’s a part of the country that feels peripheral to the seats of power. The Toon Army narrative may have become trite over the years — it may have also lost some sparkle after the Saudi takeover — but it’s no less real. Just as the nine Wembley defeats and 57-year wait for a major trophy (the last one was the Inter-City Fairs Cup, the precursor to the Europa League) is the sort of psychological baggage that infected not just the fan base, but the players too.

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Can Liverpool blame midweek fixtures on Carabao Cup final loss?

Steve Nicol reacts to Liverpool’s 2-1 loss against Newcastle in the Carabao Cup final.

Maybe the storybook tales around the club are a little corny, but that doesn’t make them any less meaningful. Like that of Dan Burn, who opened the scoring.

Burn grew up a Newcastle fan in the seaside town of Blyth, 15 miles from St James’ Park, and played in the club’s youth ranks until he was 11, when he was released. He worked his way up through a variety of minor clubs, stocked shelves in a supermarket and eventually returned to Newcastle at 30 years of age. Those who wrote the defender off as being too big — he’s 6-foot-7, after all — to play football were proved wrong, and now he’s forever enshrined in Newcastle lore. You have to be pretty darn cynical not to be moved by this at least a little bit.

Sunday’s 2-1 victory over Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final was both clean and emphatic. The Premier League leaders were limited to a single (off-target) shot in the first half, and Federico Chiesa‘s injury time strike was only their second shot on target of the entire match. Eddie Howe’s set-up basically shut down Liverpool’s attacking mechanisms almost entirely, and he did it without being overly defensive either. The key was in midfield, where the trio of Bruno Guimarães, Sandro Tonali and Joelinton bested Liverpool at every opportunity, shielding the back four and denying meaningful service into the front men.

The old cliche about never wanting to concede just before half-time applies to Arne Slot. He couldn’t have been happy with what he saw, even before the goal, but at least it was 0-0 at that point. Yes, his midfield was getting battered, and maybe he could chalk that up to the 120 minutes plus extra-time played in midweek against Paris Saint-Germain plus the absence of Trent Alexander-Arnold at rightback stepping into the middle of the park. (His back-up, Conor Bradley, was also unavailable and the replacement, Jarell Quansah, is a central defender who offers little on the ball). Yet Slot had faith in his players and waited to change until the second goal, scored by Alexander Isak.

By that point, the game had changed. With a two-goal lead, Newcastle could play on the counter and congest the defensive space, which may explain why Slot took off a centre back (Ibrahima Konaté) for Curtis Jones and moved his playmaker, Ryan Gravenberch, into the back line.

We can second-guess all this, but it likely wouldn’t have made a difference. Liverpool looked like they have looked in many of their recent games — Southampton at home, PSG away, Aston Villa way, Wolves at home — that is, haggard and lacking sharpness.

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Hislop: Newcastle’s Carabao Cup celebrations will go long into the week

Former Newcastle goalkeeper Shaka Hislop reacts to their 2-1 win against Liverpool in the Carabao Cup final.

Is it a function of what happened earlier in the season when, in an attempt to build chemistry and introduce a new system under a new coach, Slot rotated very little, especially in midfield and at the back? Probably, and it was probably the right call at the time: hey, they’re going to win the Premier League after all. But it did leave them short in the stretch run, and that’s something to address next season.

As for Newcastle, having broken the streak of futility, the goal now has to get right back up and double down on qualifying for the Champions League. They’re sixth, one point behind Manchester City, but have a game in hand. Having tasted silverware, it’s right to demand more. They have the tools — and the manager — to do it.

Barcelona deliver a statement win over Atletico, the kind that makes you believe it’s your year

Many of us harbour doubts about this Barcelona side, both in terms of solidity and in terms of mentality. After tonight, many of us may need to have a rethink, because to come back from 2-0 down away from home against Atletico Madrid with 20 minutes to go on a night when you had cobbled together just one shot on target to that point — well … that takes not just talent, but toughness upstairs.

Yet that’s exactly what they did, turning the table on an Atleti side that appeared to have their number, both in denying chances and in exploiting the counterattack. The old warrior — 36 years young, in this case — Robert Lewandowski halved the deficit with the sort of exquisite control and lightning quick finish that can’t be taught, only bestowed by a higher power. Then super-sub Ferran Torres got his timing right to redirect Raphinha‘s ball past Jan Oblak and it was 2-2.

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Are Atletico out of the LaLiga title race after Barcelona’s late win?

Luis García and Sid Lowe react to Atletico Madrid’s 4-2 loss to Barcelona in LaLiga.

You need a bit of luck, too and that came next. Alexander Sorloth missed the chance to put Atleti back in the lead, and then Lamine Yamal‘s deflected strike wrong-footed Oblak and it was 3-2 the other way, for Barcelona. Torres rounded it off in garbage time to round it off.

When games turn like this after players come on, it’s natural to credit the manager for his substitutions. Hansi Flick obviously nailed the Ferran Torres for Dani Olmo move — and the shift of Raphinha from wide left into a central position — but without the guys already out there continuing to believe and push, it would have come to naught. And that speaks volumes of where Barca are now and what they can achieve.

The flip-side here is Atleti boss Diego Simeone and some of the choices he made. At 2-0, up you expect an Atletico side to see out the game especially since they weren’t just winning, they had controlled much of the game.

The narrative is that the bottom fell out for Atletico because they were exhausted — mentally and physically — after the 120 minutes plus penalties against Real Madrid in the Champions League. As alibis go, I only buy that to a point. We’ve talked all season about how deep this side is, yet it was Simeone’s decision to only make two changes — Robin Le Normand for José María Giménez and Samuel Lino for Conor Gallagher — for the visit of Barcelona.

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Lamine Yamal reacts to Barcelona’s comeback win vs. Atletico Madrid

Lamine Yamal joins ESPN FC to react to Barcelona’s 4-2 win against Atletico Madrid.

It’s easy to second-guess, but it’s part of the manager’s job to notice his team’s intensity levels and to take appropriate action. And yet, he only made his third and fourth substitutions with 11 minutes to go, after Barca had pulled back to 2-2. What’s more, one of those changes (Gimenez for Giuliano Simeone) smacked of settling for the draw and inviting pressure, probably not the message to send in that moment.

Fine margins, to be sure. The challenge for Simeone now is to convince his team that, despite suffering two body blows in the space of five days, there’s still the Copa del Rey to play for, which offers plenty of opportunity for revenge in the return leg against Barcelona and, possibly, the final against Real Madrid. And, besides that, the gap in LaLiga is four points, with 10 games to go.

No sense in throwing in the towel now…

It’s no surprise that Arsenal’s win over Chelsea was a dull affair

This should be a classic London rivalry; instead it looked like going through the motions. Not necessarily through lack of will, either — more like a lack of quality.

As you may have heard by now, Arsenal are missing Bukayo Saka and Kai Havertz, their biggest attacking threats, as well as Gabriel Jesus, who in theory is Havertz’ only back-up. Chelsea were without Nico Jackson, Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer, who happen to be their three leading scorers, as well as Marc Guiu, Jackson’s reserve at centerforward.

I’ve hammered both clubs enough for not building a squad with a real alternative to their first-choice No. 9. On Sunday, we saw again what can happen in those conditions. Arsenal lined up with Mikel Merino, a midfielder whose movement (or lack thereof) is nothing like that of a centerforward. Chelsea had Pedro Neto, a winger whose natural tendency to find space at all costs — coupled with a near total absence of physicality, which made him easy prey for the Arsenal central defenders — often left a big hole in the Chelsea frontline.

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Laurens: Chelsea ‘tedious’ without Cole Palmer

Gab Marcotti and Julien Laurens assess Chelsea’s performance during their 1-0 loss against Arsenal in the Premier League.

Throw in uninspired performances from some of the quality players who did make on to the pitch (Jadon Sancho, Martin Odegaard) and you get a game marked by errors, like Robert Sánchez somehow misjudging Merino’s mishit header and watching it land in the back of the net for the Arsenal goal.

Lucky? Sure, but overall Arsenal deserved the three points, if only because Chelsea managed just a paltry two shots on target and eight touches in the opposition box despite 59% of (sterile) possession.

Enzo Maresca has more than enough alibis — from the injuries up front, to the goofy squad construction (“trust the process”) — and besides, their run to a Champions League probably won’t depend on a point gained or lost at the Emirates. Arsenal get their three points and can now focus solely on the one competition they can win this season: the Champions League (though they have to get past Real Madrid first).

The collateral damage is therefore limited, but man: how much more fun could this game have been with some proper attacking players on the pitch?

Inter Milan take a huge step towards Serie A title with a grown-up win at Atalanta

Napoli’s 0-0 draw with Venezia (they’ve only won one of their last seven) coupled with Inter’s 2-0 win turned it into a perfect weekend for Simone Inzaghi’s side. The victory gives the Nerazzurri a six-point lead at the top of the table over Atalanta and a three-point margin over Napoli, while also holding the tiebreakers over both. It’s far from done and dusted, of course, but it showed again how Inter are a notch above the opposition in terms of maximising their chances in each and every game.

Oh, and this wasn’t one of those games were Atalanta dominate play, but wily, old Inter find a way to win. Inzaghi’s side hit the woodwork early and created the better chances throughout, as evidenced by the expected goals count of 2.45 to 0.64.

The fact that two of the guys at the heart of Atalanta’s success this year — midfielder Éderson and manager Gian Piero Gasperini — were needlessly sent off underscores how, deep down, they probably knew things were slipping away. Ederson got a yellow card for dissent and reacted by sarcastically applauding the referee, which is an automatic caution and therefore amounted to a red card. You expect more from (arguably) your best player and the fact that he was probably justified in his original complaint — being fouled by Marcus Thuram — doesn’t mean you can risk a sending off when you’re just a goal down with nine minutes to go.

As for Gasperini’s red card, we’ve seen this so many times before: it’s pathological with that guy. He’s a genius coach, albeit one with serious anger management issues.

Right now, Inter ooze confidence from every pore. Inzaghi joked about winning the Quadruple last week; after this match Lautaro Martínez spoke openly about trying for the Treble. Arrogance? I don’t think so. They know they’re not the best team in Europe, but they know they’re really good. And, more importantly, they know that to win a Treble you don’t necessarily need to be the best, you just need to be very good, make the best decisions on the day and hope things break your way. They certainly know how to do that.

Quick hits

10. After sending Marseille packing, can we just crown Paris Saint-Germain now? I actually thought that this would be a normal game in which to drop points following the huge exertion against Liverpool in the Champions League. Marseille are in town for Le Classique, the pressure is off heading into an international break, the opposition has been preparing all week for this … nope. PSG are relentless right now, racing to a 2-0 half-time lead and then, after Nuno Mendes‘ blunder, shutting the door en route to a 3-1 win. They haven’t lost domestically all seasons, they’re 19 points clear at the top of Ligue 1 and can wrap this up by the end of the month. From there, they can focus entirely on the Champions League, which, as ever, is the real prize.

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Burley: Mbappe ‘stood up’ in Real Madrid’s win vs. Villarreal

Craig Burley reacts to Real Madrid’s 2-1 win over Villarreal in LaLiga.

9. Kylian Mbappé powers Real Madrid through Villarreal “trap” game: After 120 minutes plus penalties in midweek, and on less than 72 hours’ rest before facing an opponent who had lost at home just twice all season long, Villarreal away had classic banana skin potential. In the end, Real Madrid’s 2-1 win was hard-fought and Thibaut Courtois again had to come to the rescue with some big saves. (Ayoze Pérez did his part too, squandering the potential equalizer.) It wasn’t always pretty, but that’s what you get when you’re running on fumes. That said, Mbappe is becoming this team’s leader on the attacking end, and I’m not just saying that before he scored both goals this weekend. For all the criticism he has received, he has now hit 20 LaLiga goals (31 overall) and we still have a couple months to go. His real evolution though isn’t in the numbers, but rather in the way he is settling into the central role.

8. The squabble over Real Madrid’s kickoff time is so unnecessary: Nothing is ever straight-forward with the conspiracy theorists in and around Real Madrid and given the bad blood between the club and LaLiga boss Javier Tebas, it was inevitable Carlo Ancelotti would address the fact that they were out on the pitch some 66 hours after playing 120 minutes plus penalties of football in the Champions League midweek. Real Madrid claim they twice tried to move the kickoff time; LaLiga insist no such requests were made. Obviously, they can’t both be right. I get that LaLiga are running a business, that Villarreal-Real Madrid was the “other” marquee game this weekend after Atletico vs. Barcelona and they wouldn’t want both matches played on Sunday. But it’s hard to understand why they couldn’t have played this game in the 9 p.m. local time slot (instead of 6:30 p.m.). Equally, rather than just asking for games to be moved, it would be useful if Real Madrid brought actual data about the impact of 66 hours’ rest vs. 72 hours’ rest before banging the usual conspiratorial drums.

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Marcotti: Real Madrid aren’t entitled to 72 hours between games

Gab Marcotti talks about Real Madrid’s frustration over playing again less than 72 hours after their midweek Champions League clash.

7. Man United get to cheer the little things: Like beating Leicester City, who have lost seven straight games at home without scoring even once. Or Rasmus Hojlund scoring his first goal in three months. Or Alejandro Garnacho, getting his first since November. Or that Ayden Heaven (before he got injured) confirmed once again that he was an absolute steal when they plucked him from Arsenal in January. There’s not much else going on in between Europa League games — even the process of perfecting Ruben Amorim’s system is stunted because of the sheer number of injuries — but better to think of that then their position in the Premier League table (13th), Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s comments or the fact that the stadium design looks like circus tent. There are things for which to be thankful while you countdown to next season and a fresh start.

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Can Manchester United build off their win over Leicester?

Frank Leboeuf reacts to Manchester United’s 3-0 win over Leicester City.

6. Bayer Leverkusen dust off the late-game heroics, but the problem is what happens before they do it: I can’t be too hard on Xabi Alonso, because Julian Wirtz is sidelined and they were coming off the Champions League debacle against Bayern, but especially since they got the reaction they wanted, coming back twice from two goals down to win 4-3 in injury time and cutting the gap with league-leading Bayern back to six points. That said, I struggle to understand his team selection, especially when you have little to lose and are playing an opponent, Stuttgart, that had not won a home league game in nearly two months. Even with Wirtz unavailable, he opted for a safety-first line up featuring three central defenders, four midfielders (none of them particularly attacking) and two wingbacks, plus Patrik Schick on his own up front. The upshot? In the first half, they managed just three shots, none of them on target. Business didn’t really pick up until he finally sent on Amine Adli and Victor Boniface though even then, Leverkusen needed the rub of the green. It has been a pattern in recent games and while you can justify it against certain opponents, when you have nothing to lose, I would have thought you’re better off taking the game to the opposition.

5. Sérgio Conceição frees Tijani Reijnders to do what he does best for Milan: Better late than never, I guess. Reijnders and Christian Pulisic have been Milan’s two standout players this season, which only made Conceicao’s weird obsession with João Félix that much harder to understand. Both stars scored in the 2-1 win over Como and the Dutchman was especially devastating, coming from deep and bringing energy and dynamism against an excellent Como side. It was far from straight-forward — Como took the lead and controlled the midfield until Conceicao had the good sense to send on Youssuf Fofana, who should never have been dropped — and had another goal disallowed for the most marginal of offsides, but it’s two Serie A wins in a row, which should alleviate some of the pressure on the club. There’s a ton to work on and it’s increasingly clear Conceicao is unlikely to return next year. But if Milan can at least grind out results while allowing some of their young talent to develop, they’ll have a platform from which to come back stronger next season.

4. Bayern Munich drop more points: Their remarkable (and not in a good way) campaign continues. I wrote last week how, weirdly, Bayern might yet win the Bundesliga-Champions League Double in what is supposed to be a transition season (and not a very impressive one at that). You can blame stand-in keeper Jonas Urbig (who had done well deputising for Manuel Neuer) for Union Berlin’s equalizer in the 1-1 draw Saturday, but the reality is that Vincent Kompany’s crew looked flat throughout, managing just three shots on target despite bossing the possession. Maybe the Bayer Leverkusen games in Europe took a lot out of them, or maybe they’re just not that good right now: they have just two more points than last season, when they finished third.

3. Pep Guardiola still in experimental mode, looking for answers: Saturday’s 2-2 draw against Brighton was an entertaining game that could have gone either way: Brighton can grumble about Kaoru Mitoma‘s disallowed goal and Carlos Baleba missing a sitter, while Man City can wonder about Nico Gonzalez‘s header hitting the post. However, it was notable that Guardiola lined up, at home, with a distinctly direct formation — Jérémy Doku and Savinho wide, Omar Marmoush behind Erling Haaland — and opted to leave his more technically gifted players (Bernardo Silva, Phil Foden, Kevin De Bruyne) on the bench. It amounted to a City team that was reactive more than proactive — not something we’re used to from Guardiola, especially not at home. It worked to a point (though it’s worth noting they couldn’t manage a single shot on target in the second half), yet you wonder if this experimentation is a sign that many of these guys are auditioning for jobs next season. And if they stay this inconsistent, they may not be Champions League jobs either.

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Nicol: Foden is a ‘symptom’ of what’s going on at Manchester City

Stevie Nicol and Craig Burley analyze what’s to blame for Phil Foden’s down season for Manchester City.

2. Too little, too late for Borussia Dortmund in underachiever derby: It was certainly primed for Borussia Dortmund to finally get their act together and climb back out of the bottom half of the table and, ideally, on their way to a Champions League spot. RB Leipzig had won just one over their previous ten games and Niko Kovac’s crew were on a high from the midweek result in Lille. Instead, for the first 50 minutes or so, they looked atrocious as David Raum dominated the flank, Leipzig hit the woodwork twice and they found themselves two goals down (thanks to the usual defensive shenanigans). Dortmund did rally, putting together a monster 20 shots for an xG of 2.84 in the second half, but they failed to score and fell to their 11th defeat in 26 Bundesliga games. That’s just not good enough and it means they likely won’t be playing Champions League football next season (unless they win it, of course…)

1. Juventus slip out of Champions League places in Serie A and manager Thiago Motta says all the wrong things (again): Maybe the Juve boss will turn out to be a great manager one day and we’ll all be proven wrong. For now though, he’s not just dropping points (the 0-4 debacle at home to Atalanta was followed by a 3-0 thumping away to Fiorentina), but he’s also not reading the room at all. His reaction to the defeat was to talk about how “strong” he felt and how “he enjoyed new challenges” and other such nonsense — that’s not the right thing to say when you lose 3-0 to an age-old rival whose two best players on the day, Nicolo’ Fagioli and Moise Kean, were two guys you didn’t even want in your team. Nor is it the right thing to say when your first shot on target only comes in the second half, when you persist with personnel choices nobody understands (Lloyd Kelly at leftback? Weston McKennie on the right wing? Andrea Cambiaso and Federico Gatti as substitutes? Dusan Vlahovic and Kenan Yildiz unused on the bench?). Motta can’t be the only fall guy here, by the way. It’s one thing to back your manager; it’s quite another to follow him lemming-like off the cliff. Juve sporting director Cristiano Giuntoli has a ton to answer for as well.