Carabao Cup win confirms European nights return to Tyneside next season as Newcastle United enter Europa Conference League

Newcastle United will play in Europe next season regardless of what happens with the Premier League this season.

It takes a little bit of pressure off, but the Magpies have only entered the third-tier of European competition as winners of the Carabao Cup.

Newcastle will take up a spot in the Europa Conference League after their 2-1 win over Liverpool at Wembley on Sunday.

However, the Magpies are still chasing a place in the Champions League and would be crazy to take their foot off the gas now.

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Newcastle are still well in the race for the Champions League

Results over the weekend were very kind to Newcastle and now Eddie Howe's men have a game in hand over the rest of the Champions League-chasing pack and are only two points away from fourth-place Chelsea.

A win for Eddie Howe's men in that game in hand would see them leapfrog Manchester City and Chelsea. Additionally, we'd only be four points off third-place Nottingham Forest.

A Champions League spot is still very much on the table for Newcastle, especially with England likely to be handed an extra spot in next year's competition due to the coefficient score.

Newcastle United had the Winners 25 shirts on sale before the lads had even lifted the trophy

Regardless of which European competition we end up in next season, it's good news for the club's bottom line. Obviously, the bigger the competition we play in the more money we bring in, which is why the Champions League is so important, but even a run in the Europa Conference League will be fairly lucrative.

Indeed, there's a good chance that Newcastle could win that competition outright should that be the one they enter - West Ham did it. But again, a run in the Champions League would likely generate more money than winning the Conference League.

Yesterday's Carabao Cup victory wasn't especially money-spinning in terms of prize money, with the winners only collecting £100,000, but the club wasted no time in putting up the Winner's 25 shirts for sale on their site, and we dare bet they're selling well already.

It felt a bit dirty how quickly they had those tops on sale, in all honesty, but with PSR playing such a huge part in the game right now, we can totally understand it too. I mean, get them up on the site while everyone is drunk and in a fantastic mood, why not? Genius marketing, really.