By Liverpool, in the end, won. At the death. In the dying seconds, cruelly robbing Newcastle whose 10-men had mounted an extraordinary comeback, How Newcastle will hope this is the only late, late victory Liverpool achieve over them this month as they desperately try and hold onto their striker Alexander Isak in the last week of the transfer window after such an acrimonious saga.
Newcastle will feel cheated and will feel like another crime is committed if Isak eventually goes, For now, this win belonged to Rio Ngumoha, the prodigiously talented 16-year-old who came on as a late substitute for Liverpool and scored in the 100th minute of yet another famous meeting between these two clubs, He took his goal with astonishing calmness as Dominik Szoboszlai dummied a cross and the forward swept his shot around Nick Pope and into the net to become the youngest league scorer in Liverpool’s history.
Rio Ngumoha became yougest League Scorer in Liverpool History
Before that it was a story of three different centre-forwards: from Isak to the player deputising for him to a young reserve who had appeared to complete the comeback from 2-0 down.
Anthony Gordon was rightly red carded at the end of a first-half when he had impressed. Then Will Osula, the 22-year-old back-up, ran onto a routine long free-kick to beat Alisson and spark stunning scenes of defiance.
At times Newcastle were playing on emotion, and too much emotion at times, but they almost made it count, It had looked like it would even be about another centre-forward.
“Hand him over, hand him over,” chanted the Liverpool supporters after their second goal with Hugo Ekitike making it three games in a row that he has scored. The Frenchman, of course, chose Liverpool over Newcastle.
There will be a three-match ban for Gordon for serious foul play which leaves Newcastle in yet more difficulty. To make it worse for Eddie Howe they suffered a spate of injuries.
Virgil van Dijk speaking to Sky Sports after The Match
“It is a difficult place to come. Newcastle were fired up. The disappointing part for us is conceding two goals from set-pieces. The pressure gets on from corners and free-kicks and they have the quality. I enjoy these types of atmospheres so I was looking forward to it. We could have done better dealing with the set-pieces. We managed to get the three points and we move on. There were many good things. The start was intense, which is what we expected. We had to be a little more direct at the start and when the crowd went a bit quieter we could play a bit more.”
On the Anthony Gordon red card challenge on him:
“I said to him if it was not a sending off I do not know what is.”
On Rio Ngumoha’s winning moment:
“It is a dream debut for him. That whole attack was good. We stayed calm at the end and we did it. I am very pleased for Rio. I have mentioned to him already that the hard work starts now. I am sure with the players we have he will have a hard session tomorrow.”
