Bruno Guimaraes says he and his Newcastle United teammates are ready to make history on Sunday

Newcastle United captain Bruno Guimaraes has said since the day he arrived at the club that he wants to write his name into the history books and bring a trophy to this club.

Bruno was part of the team that was defeated by Manchester United in the 2023 Carabao Cup final and since then he has seen himself promoted to team captain under Eddie Howe.

Now the Brazilian is one game away from achieving his goal and he could get to do so as the captain of the club which has adopted him as one of their own.

Bruno Guimaraes has declared himself a Geordie on several occasions and says both of his kids, who were born on Tyneside will always be Geordies.

Bruno Guimaraes says the players have grown since the 2023 final

The pain of the 2023 Wembley defeat will definitely be playing on the minds of those players who are getting a second chance on Sunday, but Bruno Guimaraes told reporters on Friday morning that this is a new team, despite being made up of many of the same players.

“Now, we have more confidence and are different players. Our confidence is very high at the moment because it is a good opportunity to make history together.

“When you make a final before, you get more experience as a team. You change some players, but the base is still there. We are in a better moment than the last time we faced Man U in the final, so very confident and hopeful we can go there and play our best football. On our best day, we are a great team.

“We just want to make thousands and thousands of Geordies happy. We know football, sometimes, can attack you in every way, but our message is stay positive. We are going to do our best to get this trophy back to the city.”

Hopefully Newcastle's players can start seeing finals as just another game

The more times Newcastle make it to major finals, the less daunting it will become for the club and the players, and Bruno is counting on that this weekend.

Newcastle have a long way to go before we're likely to be as comfortable in finals as the likes of Liverpool and the Manchester Clubs, but if we can bag the win on Sunday, that will go a long way to closing that gap.

Eventually it will become 'just another game' that just happens to have a major honour at the end of it. Hopefully, if that does happen, our fans will never take it for granted.

Seeing so many Manchester United fans leave Wembley at full time last season was the perfect example of plastic fandom. There were more Newcastle fans left in the stadium than Man United fans when they lifted the trophy. Let's never be THAT club!