This past weekend, Manchester United finally put an end to their trophy drought by defeating Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final. It is the first official trophy under the Erik Ten Hag reign, and the first trophy since they last won a competition in May 2017. Almost six years ago, United won the Europa League for the first time in their club history; defeating Ajax by a score of 2-0, still managed by Jose Mourinho.

One story going into this game was Newcastle United’s goalkeeper situation. Since Nick Pope got himself a red card in their league game prior, he could not play in the league cup final. Backup goalkeeper, Martin Dubravalso could not play for Newcastle because he had previously played for United in the competition. Most people know of the nightmare from the Champions League final against Real Madrid that left Karius in tears after two costly errors leading to Madrid scores.

United put Karius to the test early on, as he faced a few shots that he was able to save. However, when there was just under 15 minutes left in the first half, Luke Shaw sent in a curling effort into the penalty box that Casemiro redirected into the goal to give United the lead. There was a possible offside shout, as VAR had to get involved and check to see if Casemiro had gone early. It was then decided that he was indeed onside and the goal stood. Quickly after that it was Marcus Rashford getting himself on the scoresheet. A perfectly timed run into the box forced him to take a quick snapshot at the goal, which deflected off the boot of his defender and sent the shot over Karius’ hand. 

Newcastle had some decent efforts at David de Gea towards the end of the game from some set-pieces and long-range shots. United also forced Karius to make some more difficult saves, but In the end it was not enough to beat Manchester United’s defense and the game finished the same way the first half did.

A trophy serves as a verification to all the United fans that this is a project they can get behind. Technically, they can still win a quadruple this season. They are still alive in the FA Cup, they just advanced in the Europa League, and they are currently in third place in the Premier League. The league may be a long shot, but if they could get at least one of the other two, it would cap off one of the better inaugural seasons from a United coach that we’ve seen in recent years.