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Another game for the ages as PL giants Newcastle and Liverpool play out six-goal thriller at St. James Park.
A fixture that rarely disappoints in terms of goals and drama as Newcastle battled to a 3-3-3 draw with Liverpool at St. James Park on a wet Wednesday night in the North-East.
The Merseysiders came into the clash in impeccable form after a week which saw them comfortably defeat league champions Man City and last season’s Champions League winners Real Madrid, opening up a 9-point gap at the top of the Premier League table as well as leaving them top of the pile in Europe.
By contrast, Newcastle will have been disappointed to only pick up a single point from their last two games against West Ham (h) and Crystal Palace (a), with manager Eddie Howe under increasing pressure after his side failed to register a single shot on target in their previous fixture.
It was the home side who started brightest, with Italian midfielder Sandro Tonali firing in an early shot but Kelleher parried to give Newcastle an early first corner of the game. Eddie Howe’s side piled on the pressure but failed to trouble the young Irishman in goal.
Liverpool responded well with back-to-back efforts from Alexis MacAllister, but it was Newcastle who took the lead after Bruno played Isak through who sidestepped Van Dijk before burying a thunderous 25-yard strike into the top right-hand corner sending the home fans into ruptures.
Arne Slot found himself in unfamiliar territory with his side trailing at half-time, but his team-talk proved effective as Liverpool exploded out of the blocks in the second-half. A misplaced pass from Lewis Hall allowed Alexis MacAllister to feed Mohamed Salah down Liverpool’s right-hand side and his squared pass found the onrushing Curtis Jones who smashed the ball past a stunned Nick Pope to make it 1-1 inside 50 minutes.
Suddenly Liverpool held the momentum with chances coming for Gakpo and Nunez, but it was Newcastle who broke the deadlock after Isak put Anthony Gordon through on goal and he calmly finished to make it 2-1 with 30 minutes remaining.
Eddie Howe thought Isak had made it 3-1 just three minutes later when he broke through and slotted past the onrushing Kelleher, however the linesman’s flag was raised and VAR confirmed that the Swede was indeed offside.
Arne Slot, clearly unhappy with what he was watching made a triple change bringing on Szoboszlai, Luis and Alexander-Arnold to try and force an equaliser, and not two minutes later the changes paid off as another stray pass allowed Liverpool to break on the counter and Alexander-Arnold found Salah in the box who finished neatly to make it 2-2.
Newcastle were aggrieved not to be awarded a penalty when Quansah appeared to trip Isak in Liverpool’s penalty area but neither the referee nor VAR saw fit to award a spot-kick much to the annoyance of the Newcastle spectators. Then, as the game entered the final 10 minutes, Liverpool in almost repeat fashion broke down that right-hand side and Alexander-Arnold again found Salah in the box who drove the ball home to put Liverpool ahead for the first time in this thrilling spectacle.
As the game approached the 90-minute mark, Toon fans looked all set to go home empty handed before a foul on Callum Wilson gave Newcastle a free-kick in a dangerous area just 30 yards from goal. An inswinger from Lewis Hall looped high over the heads of everyone in the box including Caoimhin Kelleher who decided to let it pass for a Liverpool goal-kick, but Fabian Schär had other thoughts as his last-ditch attempt not only kept the ball in play but neatly slid the ball into the Liverpool net to level the game for a third-time and send the Gallowgate end into euphoria.
A share of the spoils leaves Liverpool top of the league but gives Arsenal and Chelsea the opportunity to close the gap to 7 points, while Newcastle move up to 10th but in far greater spirits according to Eddie Howe after a much improved performance:
“I am really proud. We went toe-to-toe and matched them, it's our best of the season. Our game plan was to be ourselves which is difficult against a team like Liverpool, it's a delicate balance” – Eddie Howe speaking to Amazon Prime.
Newcastle Utd: (Ratings courtesy of Bryan)
Pope (6), Livramento (6.5), Schar (8), Burn (7), Hall (6.5), Tonali (9), Bruno (8.5), Joelinton (8), Murphy (7), Gordon (8), Isak (9).
Subs: Barnes (6), Longstaff (n/a), Willock (n/a), Wilson (n/a)
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