Mohamed Salah’s blistering form was nowhere to be seen as Liverpool were beaten by Newcastle United in the Carabao Cup final.
Salah has enjoyed his most productive campaign to date at Anfield, scoring 32 goals and making 22 assists in all competitions.
His form has led to calls for Salah to win the Ballon d’Or award and be officially recognised as the best player in the world.
The 32-year-old was hoping to fire Liverpool to yet another trophy at Wembley on Sunday but came up short as Newcastle sealed a 2-1 win to end their long wait for silverware.
Dan Burn’s powerful headed put Newcastle in front on the stroke of half-time and in-form striker Alexander Isak doubled the Magpies’ lead shortly after the break.
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Federico Chiesa pulled a goal back for Liverpool in injury-time but Newcastle held on to win their first trophy since 1969.
With just 23 touches of the ball, Salah was surprisingly subdued at Wembley as part of a Liverpool attack that rarely threatened Nick Pope’s goal.
According to Opta, it was in fact the first time in his Anfield career that Salah neither attempted a shot nor created a chance when he has played the entire 90 minutes of a match.
Liverpool were eyeing a stunning treble this time last week but Arne Slot’s side were knocked out of the Champions League in midweek before their Wembley defeat to Newcastle.
The Reds will, of course, win the Premier League barring a remarkable turnaround, with second-placed Arsenal currently 12 points behind in the title race.
Speaking after lifting the Carabao Cup final, Newcastle boss Eddie Howe said: ‘I am very, very emotional and been all day which is unlike me.
‘We knew what was at stake today for all of our fans, we wanted to do them proud and win the trophy.
‘I am so, so pleased with the result and the performance – we deserved to win today.
‘It was tough when Liverpool scored. I was thinking about extra time, we always make it difficult for ourselves it was never going to be 2-0.
‘We were well aware of the history and we wanted to do the club proud. We wanted to score, we wanted to perform and we wanted to win.’
Howe, who arrived at St James’ Park in 2021, added: ‘We are breaking new ground, I thought we were magnificent today.
‘We worked consistently for two weeks on set plays just for this game and if you had seen us in practice you would have said we had no chance.
‘We couldn’t believe Dan Burn scored – he didn’t train like that! He was a colossus for us.’