Liverpool 2-1 Newcastle.
Liverpool managed to come back from the dead and defeat Newcastle 2-1 despite losing their captain Virgil van Dijk early in the second half.
The away side got off to a disastrous start against Newcastle, struggling to keep the ball and the first sign of trouble was when Trent Alexander Arnold got an early booking and could maybe have been sent off.
Things got worse for the right back who miss-controlled a basic pass-back, only for the ball to roll to Anthony Gordon, the former Everton star, who capitalised on the opportunity and put the home team 1-0 up.
When it rains for Liverpool it pours, and shortly after conceding the goal van Dijk received a straight red card for being deemed to have prevented a goal scoring opportunity illegally.
From there Newcastle were in complete control, up until the last few minutes of the first half when the Reds finally got a hold of the game and created some chances but because Luis Diaz had to be taken off so Jurgen Klopp could bring on Joe Gomez to fill out the back line, they lost that real direct threat.
Newcastle started the second half in dominant form, and Liverpool were just managing to hang on, surviving a few scares.
As the half progressed they managed to carve out some opportunities themselves, Mo Salah was unlucky not to score, and Klopp soon looked to the bench to give himself options.
The introduction of Diogo Jota gave the Anfield faithful a real threat going forward, and although it came later than many would have expected, Darwin Nunez was eventually brought into the game.
The first thing he did was get behind the Newcastle defence, but a poor touch let him down and squandered a big opportunity so it didn’t look like it was going to be his or his team’s day.
Only a few minutes later however, he hassled the opposition defence, wins the ball and uses his pace to bring himself into a goal scoring position, and pulls the trigger to make it 1-1.
Unbelievably Salah put Nunez through again and the super sub striker home again to seal an incredible victory for Liverpool that has absolutely stunned Newcastle.
Liverpool Player Ratings
- 1 Alisson – 9
- 66 Alexander-Arnold – 4
- 32 Matip – 5
- 4 van Dijk – 3
- 26 Robertson – 6
- 8 Szoboszlai – 7
- 10 Mac Allister – 6
- 3 Endo – 5
- 11 Salah – 7
- 18 Gakpo – 5
- 7 Díaz – 5
Notable subs:
- 20 Jota – 8
- 9 Nunez – 9
Newcastle player Ratings
- 22 Pope – 7
- 2 Trippier – 7
- 5 Schär – 7
- 4 Botman – 6
- 33 Burn – 6
- 8 Tonali – 7
- 39 Bruno Guimarães – 6
- 7 Joelinton – 7
- 24 Almirón – 7
- 14 Isak – 6
- 10 Gordon – 8
