He may have been left disappointed by his side’s lacklustre performance in the Carabao Cup final, but Arne Slot showed his class after Newcastle ended a 70-year wait for domestic silverware.
Slot missed out on winning his first trophy as Liverpool manager on Sunday afternoon as Eddie Howe’s Newcastle defied the odds to secure a hard-fought 2-1 victory.
The Reds have now lost consecutive games under the Dutch manager for the first time after they suffered an early Champions League exit against Paris Saint-Germain on Tuesday night.
It was ultimately another frustrating result for the Premier League leaders, but after the full-time whistle at Wembley, Slot was full of praise for the Carabao Cup winners in his post-match comments.
“It is 70 years since they last won a trophy but that is for the fans,” he said. “The players have 15 years to play football and they want to win every single trophy they play for and that is what we also want.”
Slot added: “They got some extra energy with the goal which they probably deserved so I don’t think there was more hunger for them. The game went the way they wanted it to.”
The former Feyenoord boss was also magnanimous in defeat during Newcastle‘s post-match celebrations. On the touchline, he could be seen giving every Newcastle player a hand-slap as they walked past him to receive their medals.
It was a gesture that was praised by many on social media.
One fan said: “Absolutely sensational. Just shows you the character of him, very unique. He also gave full credit to Newcastle in his interview that they simply outplayed his team.”
A second wrote: “He’s a classy operator, Reds are lucky to have him,” while a third commented: “He’s a classy guy to be fair.”
A fourth said: “True sportsmanship and a gent,” and a fifth added: “Great sportsmanship, a little respect goes a long way.”
Slot has been praised for his gesture. Image credit: Getty
Speaking in his post-match interview, Slot gave a further insight into Liverpool’s defeat. “A disappointing result and a disappointing performance,” he began.
“It’s completely different to how I felt after the Paris Saint-Germain game. Losing two games in a row is something we’ve done probably for the first time, but it probably comes with being in the latter stages of competitions.
“Even Liverpool can lose football games. We were outplayed, in their style. Today it wasn’t about running; it was more about duels.”
He added: “This game went exactly the way they wanted it to, with a lot of fight and a lot of duels. This game had no intensity, so you cannot even judge if we were tired physically. There was nothing to press because they played over our press. The game was slow.”
