Liverpool versus Newcastle is a guaranteed roller coaster of a football match and today was no different. A trip to St. James Park was required but not even the greatest fortune teller on the planet could have predicted what was to unfold.
For the home team, there were no changes to their starting XI from last week’s loss to Manchester City. Liverpool had two enforced changes. Out were Konate and Jota. In came Endo and Gomez. The Japanese international making his full debut. The stage was set.
It only took six minutes for the first talking point of the game. Trent Alexander-Arnold went to ground in what appeared to be a foul from behind by Anthony Gordon. Nothing was given and as Trent lay strewn on the ground about a metre off the pitch the ball came to him and he threw the ball away which led to a yellow card. The issue was that, had a foul been called, this never would have even been a concern but this incessant crack down this season left the ref with no choice. 36 seconds later Gordon burst away down the left flank and was about to set off past the Liverpool right back when Trent stretched out his arm and ever so touched the Newcastle wide man. He went down faster than cold beer on a hot summer’s day but it clearly was a foul and probably should have been a yellow card. Referee Brooks erred on the side of leniency and only a free kick was given.
A mazey Luis Diaz run in the 17th minute was probably the best chance of the game so far and Pope did well to turn his poked shot around the post for a corner. This is where it gets crazy.
In the 25th minute, Mo Salah played a ball back to Alexander-Arnold in his own half and his miscontrolled ball allowed Gordon to race through and cooly slot between Alisson’s legs for a 1-0 lead. If this was a setback, disaster was around the corner.
Three minutes later Gordon played a slide rule pass through for Isak who’s first touch took him towards the goal. Vitgil van Dijk came across in cover and appeared to win the ball so you could imagine his surprise when he first a free kick was awarded and then a red card was raised for the denial of a goal scoring opportunity. On closer review, it clearly was a foul and there was not much else that could have been done other than to send the big Dutch man off the pitch.
Liverpool had been forced into making a change and Luis Diaz made way for Joe Gomez. It was harsh on the Colombian who had looked up for this game and was in great form having netted in both of the first two matches of the season. The other major highlight of the half was an absolutely outstanding save that Alisson made from Paraguayan Almiron. Having picked the ball up just inside the penalty area, the Newcastle wide man controlled the ball with his chest and then hit a ferocious volley hurtling towards the Liverpool good with all the momentum of a runaway meteor. With zero time to react, the big Brazilian shot stopper got both his hands up to deflect the ball on to the crossbar and then had the awareness to slap the bouncing ball out for a corner. Despite being down to ten men, Liverpool seemed to have finished the half stronger and everyone could catch their breath as the players headed off for what would have been very different team talks.
The second half began and carried out for the first 15 minutes without any real clear cut chances. A couple of half chances but nothing to write home about. Jurgen Klopp show his cards first in the 58th minute by withdrawing Wataru Endo and Cody Gakpo and introducing Harvey Elliot and Diogo Jota. The game swung from end to end with Gordon having Newcastle’s best chance and Salah being played through on goal by Jota only to see his shot blocked by a fantastic lunge by Botman. Eddie Howe flinched next by taking off his goal scorer, Isak and Tonali and sending on Wilson, Barnes and Longstaff. Soon after Almiron saw a phenomenal left foot effort cannon off the post with Alisson well beaten but try as they might, Newcastle could not find the surety of a second goal.
The game was heading towards a home victory when Klopp threw one final role of the dice taking off Joel Matip and Alexis Mac Allister and bringing on 20-year-old Jarrell Quansah and the incredibly talented but equally incredibly raw Darwin Nunez.
It only took four minutes for Nunez to make his presence felt and although how the ball fell to him was fortunate, his finish was world class. A harmless ball seemed to be blocked by Botman, but the Dutch defender fluffed his lines and the ball fell to the Uruguayan’s feet. He powered a low shot across Pope and in to the far corner and remarkably 10-man Liverpool were level. Newcastle threw on another two substitutes in the form of young Scottish player Elliot Anderson to replace Joelinton and Matty Targett for Botman.
The match was heading for a point each and everyone associated with Newcastle United must have been wondering what could have been, but Liverpool’s Uruguayan flyer has not played his final card.
As Newcastle tried to play out of their own half, the ball hit Elliot and fell to the feet of Salah, who took a couple of touches before playing a perfect ball through to Nunez, who had perfectly arched his run. As Pope charged out of his goal the Liverpool man used all his composure to send the ball sailing in to the back of the net and send the travelling scousers into raptures. How was this even possible? As the final whistle went, the dichotomy of emotions was obvious for all to see. One team had snatched victory form the jaws of defeated. The other had thrown away three points and most likely was still confused as to how it all happened.
So here’s the take away from today’s match. For the all the talk about how we have failed to take advantage this transfer window and who we haven’t signed, let’s look at it from another angle. We have won two games and drawn one with a brand new midfield and although there definitely is room for improvement, maybe we can all just take a moment to see that those who have been brought in could be a force to be reckoned with as they gel with each passing game. It appears that once again, Klopp has made some good lemonade out of lemons and perhaps those lemons weren’t so bad in the first place. Let’s look to ahead the home game against Villa knowing that another result will send us into the international break undefeated and with a platform to really launch into a fantastic season.
