The midfielder was truly unstoppable at Wembley Stadium, completely dominating the midfield alongside Joelinton and Bruno Guimaraes.
Sandro Tonali was unfortunate not to find the back of the net during the Carabao Cup final. He found space on the edge of the area in the first half but fired his effort wide.
However, Tonali still stamped his authority for Newcastle against a Liverpool side who have looked unstoppable at times this season. His performance helped the Magpies win their first domestic trophy since 1955.
Tonali will embark on the open-top bus to be a part of Newcastle’s Carabao Cup celebrations, which will see over 100,000 fans take to the city centre and the Town Moor to get a glimpse of the players, the trophy and speak to some Newcastle legends.
Alan Shearer will be on stage at the Town Moor alongside his former strike partner Les Ferdinand. The pair will also be joined by former cup winner Bob Moncur and the Newcastle women’s team before the Carabao Cup winners take to the stage and answer questions from the fans.
Tonali has achieved something he is sure to have set out to do when he first joined Newcastle in 2023, but now the Italian has other things on his mind before the end of the season.
Sandro Tonali comments on Champions League aspirations with Newcastle United
Tonali joined Newcastle from AC Milan in the summer of 2023 after the Magpies qualified for the Champions League for the first time in 20 years. The Italian marked his debut with a goal against Aston Villa, but his progress was quickly halted when he was slapped with a 10-month ban in October 2023.
The ban meant that Tonali missed most of Newcastle’s six Champions League games, where they were ultimately knocked out in the group stages after losing to AC Milan at St James’ Park.
Tonali helped bring the Carabao Cup back to Tyneside, but in a recent interview with Sky Sports News, he confirmed what he wants to Newcastle to be celebrating at the end of the season.
“Now we have a difficult period. After trophies every game is a big game, a difficult game, but we need to qualify for the Champions League, 100%.
“With five teams in the Champions League for us it’s much better, it’s not easy but it’s better. We have probably one thing we need to do, be in the Champions League.”
Newcastle United will definitely play in Europe next season
It was clear what the objective was for Newcastle this season: to qualify for Europe and be competitive in the cup competitions.
Howe has delivered the latter for the fans, but they will still be expecting a strong finish to the Premier League campaign. Newcastle still have 10 games to play in the league this season, so they will certainly be looking higher up the table, especially with a game in hand to Chelsea and Manchester City above them.
However, even if they fail to improve on their position in the table before the end of the season, Newcastle can take pride in the fact that their Carabao Cup win guaranteed them a spot in the Europa Conference League next season.
The Magpies will surely be one of the favourites to win the whole competition if they end up playing in it as it is a tournament for Europe’s lower end teams.
Newcastle can look to Chelsea for inspiration should they play in the Conference League; the Blues are in that tournament this season and look like probable winners.
